


Satisfied

by biggaydhd



Category: Victorious (TV)
Genre: Canon Rewrite, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, Self-Indulgent, Slow To Update
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2020-01-11
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:47:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 23,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21936211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/biggaydhd/pseuds/biggaydhd
Summary: Victorious rewritten with better storylines (hopefully) and significantly more Jori!
Relationships: Tori Vega/Jade West
Comments: 38
Kudos: 159





	1. Pilot

“Let’s see. The bread mold.” Tori Vega was in her house working on a science project. Recording observations on mold. She’d rather do anything else but it’s not like she has much of a choice.

“Bread mold.” The boy she was partnered with, Ian, started recording results on his PearBook.

“Furry.”

“Furry.”

Tori touched the bread.

“Mushy.”

“Mushy.”

Tori switched to the other side of the table. 

“Next, the fish mold.” She honestly couldn’t wait for this to be over with so she can get this out of her house.

“Fish mold.”

She leans down and brings the fish to her nose. She takes a long sniff, not bothering to waft it.

“Stinky.”

“Did you hear about Kaylee?” Ian suddenly changes the subject. Kaylee used to be one of Tori’s friends, what happened was... well, they kind of just drifted apart. Tori wasn’t sure why.

“No, why?” Tori leans on the table. “What happened?”

Ian huffed out a laugh. 

“New guy of the month is some dude from Hollywood Arts...” he pauses, “that’s where your sister goes, right?”

Tori nods slowly, eyebrows wrinkling in confusion. Kaylee’s dated a lot of people, but never anyone outside of Sherwood.

“I think they said his name was...” he contorts his face, trying to remember what he heard, “Rodrick?”

Tori simply shrugs.

“I’m not surprised.” She laughs dryly. “I hope he won’t feel as bad when he finds out he’s just BF of the month...”

Ian laughs with an eye roll in return. 

“Yeah, remember when Michael threw a fit and they had to suspend him ‘cause he wouldn’t stop following her?”

Before Tori could answer, her sister Trina slams open the door. They both snap their heads towards her.

“I am so upset!” The door slams shut. Trina placed her bag down and stomps her way to them. “You won’t believe who I got partnered with for the big showcase.”

Tori rolled her eyes, she was used to her older sister’s whining.

“Who?”

“Andrew Harris,” doesn’t sound that bad, “a tenth grader.” 

Tori couldn’t understand what the problem was with this, but there was no use arguing with Trina. Ian speaks up.

“What’s the big showcase?”

“It’s a performance they put on at her school every year where-”

“They invite agents and directors and producers and other super-powerful people in show business-” she takes his hand and starts dragging him to the front door as she talks, “and it’s extremely important to me which is why I am very upset and goodbye.”

Ian tries to protest but Trina slams the door shut in his face. Tori scoffs.

“He and I have a science project due tomorrow!” She steps into the living room. “I have to turn in my mold bush.”

“No, Andrew’s coming over and you gotta help us figure out what we’re gonna do in the big showcase.” She argues. “I definitely wanna sing.”

She slams a random chord— if it even was a chord, on the piano and starts singing off-key.

“How was that?” She wiggles her eyebrows. Her pride in herself was completely baffling.

“Loud?”

“Awesome!” 

_Wasn’t a compliment._

The doorbell rings. 

“Ugh,” Trina goes to answer it, “he’s here.”

Tori moves forward to meet him too. 

“Stay.” Tori halts.

The door opens and a boy wearing a blue jacket with a bag hanging from his shoulder walks in.

“Come in.”

“Thanks.” Much like Trina, he doesn’t look too thrilled to be here.

Trina sighs and waves a hand towards Andrew.

“Tori, that’s Andrew.”

“Andre.” Ah, so Andrew wasn’t his name. Figures.

“Hey.” Tori greets him, hoping to alleviate Trina’s sourness.

It looks like it worked, Andre smiles.

“You go to Hollywood Arts, too?”

Tori could laugh at the idea.

“Oh, no,” she shakes her head, “I’m not a performer. Just my sister.”

With that, Trina perks up.

“Yep.” She slings a hand across Tori’s shoulders. “I got the talent and she got the strong teeth. You know, she’s never had one cavity?” 

“I try not to brag about it.” It wasn’t really that impressive. 

Andre’s eyes flash over to the piano.

“Oh,” he quickly sits down on the stool, “nice piano.”

He plays it and he plays it beautifully. Tori had to admit, she knew how to play but she couldn’t consider herself to be this good.

“Oh my god,” she sits next to him, “you’re fantastic.”

Trina rolls her eyes at the _obvious_ flirting between the pair. 

“He’s okay.” 

Andre notices a smell coming off Tori’s hand, taking it and trying to figure out what it is. She nods her head. Probably should’ve washed it before welcoming in a guest.

“Fish mold.” He drops her hand on the piano.

X

_ToriVega_

5 DAYS helping Trina and André rehearse. Trina’s driving me INSANE!

_Tori via TwitFlash 5min. ago_

X

“No, grandma, listen.” Tori walks in, drinks in each hand, to Andre on the phone. “There’s no way you can drown at my school.”

He takes one with a nod towards Tori. He tries to end the call but gets cut off each time. Instead, he settles for a simple “I’ll call you later!”

Tori stands there with an amused smile on her face.

“Your grandmother’s coming to the big showcase?”

“Yeah,” he answers, “it’s gonna be the first time she’s left the house in six years.”

Woah.

“Why?” 

Andre scoffs.

“‘Cause the woman’s afraid of everything: people, umbrellas, rabbis, bikinis, breakfast foods...”

A thought pops into Tori’s head.

“So if she saw a rabbi in a bikini eating pancakes...” 

“The woman would burst into flames.” Tori smiles. She’d be lying if she said that there wasn’t one good thing to come out of this thing. Andre was a great guy to have around.

Of course, Trina had to ruin the moment by being well... Trina.

“You guys, come on!”

Tori rolls her eyes.

“Back to rehearsal.” 

“Let’s go.”

They walk in to find Trina in a... not-so-flattering dress. Their eyebrows furrow in a mix of confusion and disgust.

“So?” She shows off her dress. “What do you think? Fabulous, right?”

“You really need to wear that, just to rehearse?”

“A performer needs to feel the part to be the part.” She taps her sister on the nose with every iteration of the word ‘part’.

“I thought we talked about you not tapping my nose anymore.” Something about being tapped on the nose bothered Tori, not just by Trina, by everyone. Trina brushes it off.

“Okay,” she swiftly moves on, “we got the comedy stuff down so let’s start with my song.” 

Everything about this whole performance would _be_ a comedy. Maybe except for Andre.

“And by ‘your song’,” he scoffs, “I’m guessing you mean that song _I_ wrote?”

“No one cares who wrote the song.” Considering the kind of school they go to, they probably do care. “Now, take it from ‘When I make it shine.’”

Andre starts playing the piano and Trina starts singing off-key. Way off-key. A little flat as well. She’s so bad that sometimes Tori thinks she does it on purpose.

“Well?” If she knew how bad she was, she didn’t let it show.

“Do you have any aspirin?” Tori’s ready for this moment. She pulls out a bottle and hands him a few pills.

X

_ToriVega_

ditching school - going to Trina’s BIG SHOWCASE

_Tori via TwitFlash 5min. ago_

X

The day of the showcase has arrived and it proves to be quite entertaining, but not the best in the world. Tori notices an old woman squeeze in behind her. She assumes it’s Andre’s grandmother.

“Oh, hi.” She smiles. “You’re Andre’s grandmother?” 

Tori must’ve said something wrong, as she immediately freaks out and drops to the floor.

“I don’t know you!”

Tori shakes her head. Suddenly, screams and cries can be heard from backstage. A man hurried his way over to Mr. and Mrs. Vega.

“Excuse me, you’re Trina’s parents?”

A confused expression passes over her dad’s face.

“Uhh... yes.” 

“Why?”

“Please come with me.” The urgency in his voice prompts all three of them to follow him. Andre’s grandmother peers over as soon as they get up. The others around her sporting annoyed expressions.

Backstage, Trina is freaking out, her tongue grossly enlarged.

“ _Mah tong!”_ A few people are crowded around her, but most of them are minding their own business. This was just an everyday thing when you go to school with Trina Vega.

“There she is!” The rest of the Vega’s and Lane rush in.

“Trina!” Her mother rushes over.

“What happened?”

“ _Un thins ong ith ah uung.”_ She points at it as if it isn’t the first thing people would notice.

“Oh my god, it’s huge.” 

“ _Ahmbahee tsu thumpthin.”_

The nurse looks around.

“Does anybody know how this happened?”

Tori suddenly remember something from earlier. 

“The Chinese herb gargle.”

Trina nods her head vigorously and attempts to say something, maybe ‘yes?’ In Tori’s defense, she tried to warn Trina.

“Wait, what are you talking about?” This probably wouldn’t have happened in the first place if their parents were there to stop her. 

“She found some website that shows you how to make a special Chinese herb gargle that’s supposed to help you sing better.” Saying it out loud makes it sound even stupider. 

“Well, she must have had an allergic reaction to it.” There was no way the nurse could fix this in time for the showcase.

Trina continues to speak, nobody being able to quite understand her. The nurse confirms that there was no way she could perform.

“Stop talking! Your tongue could burst!” The nurse lets out, completely tired and frustrated.

“I’m sorry, sweetie.” Holly shakes her head.

“Next year.” David tries to offer a comforting hand, but it doesn’t work.

The nurse pulls her aside to massage her tongue.

“I guess my grandma came here for nothin’.” Except there was no way Lane was gonna let him leave his grandma hanging.

“Wait,” an idea seems to come to his mind, “does anyone else know Trina’s part?”

Andre gets hit by realization. 

“Her sister does.” 

“M-me sister?” There was no way, Tori was _not_ a performer.

Andre only nods in response.

“No way,” she scoffs at the idea, “there’s no way, I just helped them rehearse. I’m not even a student here. I couldn’t go on stage.”

Andre grabs her arm.

“You know this whole thing inside _and_ out,” he starts listing all of them, “you can do this, come on.”

“Uh-uh.”

“She said she’ll do it.”

“No, I didn’t.” But she’s drowned out by everyone’s cheering.

“Woah, woah, she cannot go on stage wearing that.” Lane said.

“Excuse me.”

“Go get her something cool to wear.”

“No!” Everyone drags her in to change. She attempts to run away but gets caught by Andre.

The performance starts, and Tori struggles to get off the stage. It starts slow and tentative, but then she asks Andre to speed up the song. It doesn’t take her long to lose herself in the moment. She delivers a showstopping number that drowns everything out with thunderous applause.

Tori shrieks and jumps into Andre’s arms, giggling. Between all the congratulations, the principal asks Tori to join the school. Everyone encourages her to despite her doubts. Andre even asks the whole theatre to give their opinion.

It leads to one big ‘Okay!’ from Tori.

X

**Tori Vega:**

My 1st day at Hollywood Arts. EPIC!!!!

**Mood = Freaking 😣**

X

Before heading to school, she asks Trina to stop by FunNuts. In Tori’s opinion, they made the best blueberry donuts. Trina agrees, but not without an overly dramatic groan. She would be amazing in horror movie sound effects.

As soon as got her donuts, she stepped outside. Trina was nowhere to be seen. That’s fine, it’s not like they were going to be late, plenty of time.

She hears coughing from behind her, and she sees a homeless bum sitting on the curb. 

“Hey, are you okay?” She comes closer, but not close enough to touch him. She was nice, but she wasn’t stupid. Could be a brutal mugger.

“Hm?” He turns, the guy was _definitely_ high. “Oh, yes. Just a little cold.”

 _Weird,_ Tori thought, _it is the exact opposite of cold right now._

“Well,” she searchers her bag and comes up with two dollars, “here. I think it’s enough to buy a small coffee.”

He takes it happily, a little bit confused, but he doesn’t protest. 

“Thank you.” He stands up. “May I offer you a piece of advice in exchange?”

“Uhh,” she tentatively nods her head, “sure?”

“The best way to get rid of an enemy is to make a friend.” He said it with complete seriousness.

“Wow, that’s pretty solid advice.” He laughs dryly.

“Ah yes,” he sits in contemplative silence for a few seconds, “I took it from a fortune cookie I picked off the ground.”

Ah.

“Well,” she backs away slowly, “have a nice day, sir.” 

“And you too.”

Trina’s car pulls up at the right moment. Tori rushes over the passenger’s seat.

“Drive.” Trina raises an eyebrow, but she drives.

“Woah, what happened to you?”

“I just met a total lunatic.” He was. “I think the guy was high.”

“Well,” Trina laughs, “we do live in Los Angeles.”

“That’s true.” Tori eases up a little.

“And besides,” she gives her younger sister a not-so-gentle punch on the shoulder. “It’s nothing compared to what you’ll see.”

Trina was right. Hollywood Arts was loud. But not the kind of loud you would get from a normal high school. It was the kind of loud that would energize you. Just like it is energizing Tori. She looked way out of place, gawking and following Trina around like a baby duck.

“See? It’s just a high school.” Is she kidding?

“Uhh, this is not just a high school.” Tori spots another girl having an impromptu jamming session with some other kid. From the looks of it, they’ve never met before. “These kids are all artsy and creative and talented, and I’m just...normal.”

“It’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with being average.” Tori nods her head. Classic Trina. “Anyway, you’re not alone. I got your back.”

“Okay, so—”

“Trina!” She’s cut off by a shorter girl. “Eric Paulson got his hair straightened!”

“Shut up! Oh, my god—” Tori is left standing there dumbstruck.

“I’m alone.” She didn’t know what she was expecting from Trina. She’s never really fit into the cool big sis role very well. And now because of her, Tori’s back to gawking. 

She spots a redhead with curly hair walking by. 

“Hey, um,” the girl turns around to look at her, “can you tell me—”

A flash of recognition goes through her face.

“Oh my god, you’re Tori, right?” Tori didn’t think people would know her. She was just a carp in a sea of unique and colourful fishes.

“Uh-huh.”

“You were so awesome in the big showcase.” Tori liked this girl already.

“Aw, thanks.” 

“My name’s Cat.” It fit her. Tori wasn’t sure why, she just thought so.

“Like the animal?”

Her mood switches instantly.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” 

“Nothing, I-I love cats.”

And just like that, she’s back to being as jovial as ever.

“Me too, they’re so cute.” And then she walks away, leaving Tori dumbstruck. Again.

The door swing opens and a scrawny boy with glasses carrying a puppet in his arms walks in.

“Hey, um—”

“Oh, hi.” He swings around. “Hey, hello. Female? Yes.”

He makes eye contact with his puppet. Weird...

“Can you tell me where Mr. Sikowitz’s classroom is?”

Instead of the boy, the puppet speaks.

“Down the hall, swing a left at the water fountain, second door on your right.”

_Ooh, this boy was good. Weird, but good._

“Thank you.” She walks away slowly.

“Whatever it takes, cupcake.” The boy blames the words on the puppet.

Tori arrives in the classroom, which is relatively empty. She turns around and bumps straight into another boy, spilling coffee on his shirt.

“Oh my gosh.” She freaks out.

“Ah, it’s cool.” She tries to get the stains out by rubbing her arm against his che— shirt.

“No, here. I think it’s coming out.”

“You might be making it worse, actually.” She was, yet she didn’t stop. He’s laughing though, so she figured it was okay.

A voice comes from the doorway.

“Dude, why you rubbing my boyfriend?” If this was a sitcom, she could hear the cheers in the background as she walks in. She was absolutely gorgeous.

There’s a moment where Tori doesn’t say anything and the other girl just sends her a questioning glare. If she thought the guy in front of her was hot, this one was... _daammmnnnn_...

Tori snaps out of her momentary trance.

“I just— I spilled coffee on—” 

“Get away from him.” She motions for her to do exactly that.

“Relax.” The boy with the good hair walks towards his girlfriend and plants a kiss on her cheek. It doesn’t do much to take the edge off of her, she squints her eyes at Tori. She shudders at the intensity.

“Oh my god!” A man that Tori recognizes as the homeless bum she met before arriving at school barges in. “There’s a fire!”

Everyone starts screaming but no one actually moves. They all stay on the spot and spinning their heads around as if it would magically teleport them to safety.

“Kidding, kidding.” Seriously? “Just wanted to get your blood pumping, which I did— ha!”

_This guy’s a lunatic! The school had security guards, right?_

“All right!” He shuts the door. “Now, let’s get started— rumps in chairs.”

He throws his jacket to the side like a bowling ball. 

_Wait a second, this guy’s not a homeless bum!_ Certainly not. That’s two dollars wasted.

“He’s our teacher?” Tori has her seat scooched close to Andre. Right now, he was the only comfort she had in this loony bin of a school.

“Okay,” he claps his hands together, “first, I’d like to introduce our new student Tori.”

She waves timidly.

“And I’d like to thank Tori for her generous gift of two dollars—” he pulls out said two dollars “—which she handed me outside this morning.” He then shows it off. “Not necessary, but much appreciated.”

“Why’d you give him two dollars?”

“I thought he was homeless.” 

Andre only nods. He couldn’t blame her. He certainly dressed the part.

“Now, today we’re going to continue our study in group improv.” And just like that, he’s moved on. “Tori, I assume you’re familiar with improv?”

“No.”

“Okay, crash course. Improv— acting without a script,” he explains, “which means the actors must make up their own actions and dialogue as they perform the scene. Understood?”

Tori attempts to ask a question.

“Excellent.” He leaves Tori confused. “Jade, you will captain the first group of the day. Choose your actors.”

The realization that she probably should’ve done her homework before she came to a performing arts school came a little too late. But hey, at least she knows what improv is _and_ the mean girl’s name.

She struts to the stage with a confidence Tori could dream of having. 

“Cat, Eli, Beck...” she says Beck’s name with a flirty tone, “and Tori.” 

She says hers with a little more venom. Tori glances up, confused. Andre gives her the okay to get on stage.

“Okay. Let’s give ‘em a place.”

Puppet boy raises his hand.

“Home.”

“Home.” He writes it down on the whiteboard.

“Ooh, real creative.” Tori didn’t understand, if the boy was controlling the puppet, why was he being so mean to himself?

“You be quiet.” He reprimands him like a toddler. The puppet slaps him in retaliation. “Ow!”

“And now we need a situation.”

“Big news,” Andre said.

“Andre, nobody wants to see big nudes.” Everyone in class stares at him.

“News.” He corrects.

“Ah, well, that’s different.” Oh, it is. It is very different. “Big news.”

That goes up on the board too.

“Uh, why don’t you go wait in the hall?”

“Uh, okay.” She steps out into the hall and the scene starts.

“Hey, babe,” Jade jumps into the action with ease, “how was work today?”

“Uh,” he hesitates just the slightest bit. “I got fired.”

“Oh.”

“Again?” The voice came out of nowhere, but wherever it came from, he’s not going to end up voice acting.

“It’s okay.” The hostility in her voice was gone. She truly was an amazing actress. “I have great news that’ll cheer up this whole family.”

“What is it?”

“Tell us.”

“I went to the animal shelter...” she drags Tori on to the stage, “a dog.”

“Uh, yep.” Tori had no clue what she was doing. “I’m the new family dog. Woof.”

“Sikowitz, will you please tell this amateur that dogs can’t talk and that they don’t walk on two legs.” Not even a second passes and she screams his name.

“Oh sorry. I was sucking milk out of this coconut.” Confusion flashes through everyone’s faces. “But it’s true, Tori, if you’re going to play a dog, be a dog.”

They all look at her expectantly and kneels.

“Woof.”

“And action.”

“I went to the animal shelter and got us a dog.”

Eli and Cat— the kids— all rush towards her to pet her.

“Uh-oh,” Jade gently touches her hair, and it feels kind of nice, “looks like this dog’s got some bugs in her hair.”

_Hold on just a second..._

“Uh, woof?” She washed her hair this morning...

The kids jump away in disgust.

“Oh, it’s okay.” She moves towards the class. “I read on the internet that coffee works great for getting rid of fur bugs.”

Andre and Beck try to stop her, but the next thing Tori feels is ice cold coffee running down her back... and then she’s soaked. 

“What’s the prob,” there’s the hostility, “dog?”

Tori runs from the class, embarrassed and angry. She sits on the steps and pulls out her phone, only to get a face full of ass.

Andre follows her out.

“Hey, whatcha doing?” The concern was there in his voice. The voice that Tori has been conditioned to feel relief every time she hears it. But it’s not going to work this time.

“Calling my mom to go back to my old school.?

“Why?” Andre didn’t want Tori to go. She’s only been here for minutes and it would already feel wrong without her.

“‘Cause I don’t like having black coffee in my hair.” He had to find a way to make Tori stay. He had to.

“Then I’ll get you some cream and sugar. Everything will be chill.” Humor doesn’t work.

Tori’s on her call with her mom when Andre snatched the phone away.

“Gimme back my mom!”

“You’re gonna quit this school on the first day just because of one mean girl?”

“It’s not just her!” The feelings she kept hidden at the beginning of the day all come rushing out. “It’s just— I don’t fit in here with— all this.”

“C’mon this place isn’t that different from other schools.” Except it was. What other schools pretty much obligates students to decorate their lockers.

“Oh, yeah,” her voice is dripping with sarcasm, “like regular schools have improv classes with barefoot teachers and nerd with puppets and bipolar cats and mean girls who make you bark like a dog?”

Nerd with a puppet walks into the scene.

“Uh, you guys—“

“Sikowitz wants you both back in class.”

“He asked me to tell them!”

Tori flashes a look towards Andre that says, “see?”

“Will you guys be cool?”

“Him?” The puppet takes a glance at Robbie. “Be cool?”

The idea makes him laugh.

“You’re a demon!” 

Enter, ditzy cat.

“You guys,” she addresses them, “Sikowitz really wants everybody back in class.”

“And you really wanted a date to the prom last year, but you didn’t get one, did ya?”

“Rex!”

“Tell your puppet to quit being mean to me.” She sounded like she was close to tears.

“Don’t call him a puppet. That’s an offensive term!”

This was getting out of hand. Next, the whole class is just gonna be hanging out in the hallway.

“Yeah, this school’s pretty normal.” To Andre’s dismay, Robbie and Cat only confirm Tori’s doubts. 

“Just please go back to class and tell Sikowitz we’ll be there in a minute.” Andre sounded desperate.

“You better hurry.”

“Yeah.”

They walk away with Rex picking another fight with Robbie.

“Okay, this school’s not normal.”

“Really?!

“You’re not normal either.” Compared to everyone else? Maybe. “I’ve seen what you can do on stage. You’re special. You’re fantastic. You belong to this school. Normal’s boring.”

He walks back to class. Cat bounced up to Tori.

“It’s true.”

“That normal’s boring?”

“No, that no one asked me to the prom.” And then she was gone again.

X

**Tori Vega:**

worst day ever. GOING HOME

**Mood = Wrecked 🤕**

X

Tori sat on the sofa, watching her performance on the big showcase over and over and over again. 

_Special? Yeah, right._

Trina sits next to her, taking her earbuds out.

“You know, you’re actually _not_ terrible.” Tori sighs. “You’re really gonna quit Hollywood Arts?”

“What do you think I should do?” It was unfair to ask Trina that, she’s never been good at advice.

“I think you should come back.”

“Why?”

“So I won’t be known at school as the girl with the lame little sister who quit on her first day.” Of course.

She gets up and walks away. Before she leaves Tori to think, she adds more.

“And I think you were really good in the big showcase.”

“Thanks, Treen.”

“But I would’ve been amaziiiing.’ _Of course._

X

 **Tori Vega** is feeling... conflicted.

**Mood = Lost 😕**

X

The next day she walks into the classroom. Trina and Andre were right, there was no way she would quit this school. At least not on the first day.

She’s a little late, and by the looks on everyone’s faces, they weren’t expecting her to show up.

Sikowitz is the first to speak up.

“Tori, you’re back.” He puts down the eraser. “Have you ever thought about coming in through the window?”

Random.

“No...”

“Think about it.” Aside from that, he didn’t have anything else to say about her return. “Now, sit, sit.”

And she does.

“Okay, today we’re going to do some alphabetical improv.” As if reading their minds, he says, “What is alphabetical improv? You ask. So I answer. It’s when we give a letter to the first actor in the scene. If we used the letter ‘A’ as an example, then the actor must make his first word start with the letter ‘A’.”

Tori could hardly keep up with him.

“Which might go something like...” he turns to Beck.

“Apples are falling out of my butt.”

“Lovely.” He continues. “Now, the next actor who speaks must start his line with the next letter in the alphabet, in this case, ‘B’, so he might say...”

He gestures towards Andre.

“Bring those apples, so that we may all enjoy the fresh fruit from Beck’s butt.”

“Charming. Now, who wants to lead the first group?”

Tori raises her hand, eager to prove herself.

“I do.”

“All right, Tori.” She struts to the stage with a newfound confidence in her steps. “Choose your actors.”

“Okay.” She doesn’t even need to think about it. “Andre, Cat, Andre, Beck, and Jade.”

She raises an eyebrow.

“Yeah, you.”

On her way up to the stage, she kisses Beck. Which makes Tori roll her eye.

_Is this girl ever gonna realize that I don’t want him?_

“Jade, kiss your boyfriend on your own time.”

“Oh, I will.”

Yeah, no, Tori would rather not think about the implications in those three words.

“Okay, if you start your line with the wrong letter—“ he makes a buzzing sound, “—you’re out. Robbie, give us a letter.”

“P”

“P!”

“Oh, I was going to say ‘P’!”

“Okay, the scene can be about anything you want. The first letter of the first line is ‘P’. Tori, action.”

“Please, go take a shower.” She immediately addressed Jade. She might be trying to be the bigger person, but hey, a little revenge never hurt anyone.

“Quit telling me what to do.”

“Relax, girls, let’s all try to get along.” The thought was nice, but they did not need a mediator here.

“Totally.” And Cat was out.

“Cat, your line had to start with an ‘S’.”

“Oh, my life’s the worst!”

“Here’s a piece of candy.”

She takes the candy.

“Yay! I love candy.” _Cute._

“All right, Andre.” Back to it. “Letter ‘S’ to you.”

“Uh, something just bit my toe.”

“Turtle. That turtle just bit his toe.”

“Unbelievable that you’re even here.” Instead of playing along, Jade continues her little spat with Tori.

“Very immature of you to say that.” _Thank you, Beck._

“Uh...” Andre wasn’t much of an actor. That plus the tension was not working well for him.

“C’mon Andre, ‘W’!”

“What if the turtle bite broke my toe bone?”

“X-rays are the only way to find out.”

“You should shut up.” If it didn’t annoy Tori when it first started, it did now.

“Zap! I just healed your toe with my magic finger.” Tori feels a bit better at everyone going with their story instead of letting it turn into a fight.

“Thanks!” And that was his mistake.

“Andre, your line had to start with an ‘A’. Sit down.”

“Aw, and I just got my toe bone fixed.” Tori pats him on the shoulder.

“Tori, letter ‘A’,” he wildly gestures towards her, “to you.”

“Aliens are the only people who can heal toes by finger zapping.”

“By the way—“ Jade blows a raspberry.

“Correct, I am an alien.” This might as well be a scene between Beck and Tori.

Tori gasps.

“Ooh, a twist.” If Sikowitz was on a seat, he’d be at the edge of it.

She takes a large step closer to Beck.

“Don’t hurt me, please!”

“Even though she’s extremely annoying.”

“Fainting, because I can’t breathe—“ he crumbles to the ground, “—your earth’s air.”

“Gosh, it fainted!”

“Excellent!” The guy jumped up and down like a little kid getting a puppy for Christmas. He motions for them to move forward. “Tori and Jade, keep going, the next letter’s ‘H’.”

Jade jumps in without missing a beat.

“Hey,” she has a smile on her face, but her eyes give it away, she’s starting to crack, “why don’t you go jump off that cliff over there?” 

_Is she_ that _petty? God._

“I think you should.”

“Just where did you come from?” Jade was starting to get frustrated. Tori was not giving in and stayed completely calm while Jade was near her limit.

“Kangaroos,” Tori said it so easily, completely satisfied with herself. 

The other girl took the opportunity to take another jab at her.

“Lousy animals, kangaroos.” She strutted over behind Tori, hands on her hips. “They’re awkward and dirty.”

Before Jade could think she gained the upper hand, Tori turned and fired a retort.

“Maybe they learned from you.”

There was a chorus of ‘ooh’s and a few snickers from the class, even from Sikiowitz.

_Gotcha._

The smile on Jade’s face was the only thing keeping Tori from dying that day, and even that was slipping away.

“ _No one_ talks to me like that.” Setting aside her calm, Tori decides to dish out her finishing blows.

“Obviously someone should.” 

“Please run in front of a bus.” Jade’s responses were increasing in volume.

“Quite obnoxious of you to say.” But it’s fine, Tori could do that too.

Jade’s hands were back on her hips. She was bold, she can give her credit for that. But she shouldn’t be. _Everyone_ was afraid of Jade West. Tori couldn’t be an exception.

“Really?”

“Sure was.”

“ _Thanks.”_ She draws the ‘a’ out, letting the shorter girl know just how frustrated she was.

It isn’t like Tori wasn’t losing her cool too. She was. Slowly.

“Up your nose, I see boogers.” It was immature, but she didn’t care at this point. She’s proved herself enough.

“Very clever.” _God, I really hate this girl._

“Wish you’d thought of it?” Tori smiled at her, but that only did more to anger Jade.

Jade points at Tori’s nose. 

“‘X’ marks the spot I’d like to punch.” 

“Your finger smells weird.” Tori scrunches her nose, glancing between Jade and her finger.

“Zero is what you are, on a scale from one to ten.” She moves back to her original spot.

“And back to the letter ‘A’!” It was Sikowitz. Tori had totally forgotten he and the rest of the class were still there.

Tori turned around.

“As if I care what you think.” She didn’t bother masking the irritation.

“Better watch yourself.” The class leaned forward, anticipating what Tori would come up with next. The girl was full of surprises. If it wasn’t working against her, Jade would honestly find it attractive. She likes unpredictable. Just not on Tori.

Tori raised an eyebrow, almost mimicking Jade’s stance. 

“Can’t take it?”

“Don’t push me.” If you squint, you could see a slight hint of fear in the goth’s eyes.

“Eat your pants!”

“F-forget you!” Tori didn’t miss that stutter.

“Gee, I would, but I think everyone’s enjoying me too much for that.” She also didn’t miss the small nods of agreement.

“How are you such a gank?” The screaming girl was a stark contrast to the calm Vega in front of her. Their noses were only inches away from each other.

“I don’t know, I think that question would be better suited for you.” A low growl escaped Jade’s throat, followed by a smug smile.

“Just don’t come crying to mommy when I destroy you.” 

There was a pause, and Jade thinks she’s won. An idea suddenly came to Tori’s mind, and before she could stop herself, it all came rolling down her tongue.

“Kiss me.” Beck immediately lifts his head, his jaw dropping. He’s not the only one, the class is entirely speechless. Sikowitz’s eyes were shining as if a missing puzzle piece has finally clicked in his mind.

Jade was speechless. Tori was about to backtrack when she glanced at their teacher and sees him giving her a thumbs up and vigorously nodding her head. 

She steps forward and closes the distance between her and Jade. To her surprise, she kisses back. She wasn’t sure whose heart was the one beating like crazy. She wasn’t sure _why_ this was even happening in the first place.

A low whistle from the back of the class snaps them out of it. Jade pushes her away. 

“What do you think you’re doing?” Jade’s eyes widen even more than it already is. “Wait!”

Sikowitz snaps his fingers in disappointment. At Jade starting with the wrong letter or her abruptly ending the kiss, no one knows.

“Dang it, Jade!” He sighed. “The next letter was actually-”

“‘L’!” The sudden mood change could’ve given Tori whiplash. “I know!” 

She gave one last lingering look to Tori. Somewhere in between anger and confusion, and maybe something else? If there was, Tori had no clue.

Sikowitz had already moved on while Tori was still trying to catch up.

“Alright, keep the scene going.” He claps his hands. “Letter ‘M’!”

“Maybe you should rest, Alien.” She pulls a mildly shaken Beck to his feet.

“I- buh?” 

Sikowitz made a buzzing sound. He points at Beck’s seat without saying a word. The class looks to each other unsure over whether they should clap or not. Andre starts clapping and slowly the class starts to follow his lead.

“Man, I love this school.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't written anything in such a long time, so I might be a little rusty. I couldn't really rewrite much from this episode that I'm starting to think I should just watch it once, read the plot, and keep particularly memorable quotes. Ah well, it's just the pilot anyway, I'll figure stuff out.


	2. The Bird Scene

“So she says to me, ‘So what?’” Trina steps into the doors of Hollywood Arts... talking to no one in particular. “‘You think you’re better than everyone else?’ And I go, ‘Well, pretty much, yeah.’”

She continues until she notices Tori was no longer right behind her. “Tori, come on.”

Right on cue, Tori walks in, flopping around and dropping books. “Did you not see me fall down in the parking lot?”

“It was very funny.” 

Tori groans in frustration, bending down to pick up her books. “I wasn’t trying to be—”

Trina gasps and exclaims, “The new play roster.” She places her coffee cup on Tori’s books without even bothering to look. “Hold my coffee.”

“I—” She groans. She’s starting to regret not taking her mom’s tote bag and carrying her books in there. But the coupon pattern on it was just so unbelievably horrid. 

“Move!” Tori rolls her eyes as her older sister pushes her way through the crowd of students. She laughs to herself. “These are so good.” 

At least she comes back to her sister. But she doesn’t do anything to help her. Instead, she simply says, “Don’t spill that.” The coffee was tilting dangerously. One wrong move and the school’s twelve janitors would have another mess to clean up.

Tori scoffs, “What’s so good?”

“The list of plays for the new semester,” she says as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Oh my god, I am perfect for all these.” 

Unless it was some sort of comic relief, Tori highly doubted she was perfect for any of the roles. In fact, for all the plays Trina came home bragging about, none of them actually gave her a speaking role.

“Is ‘Moonlight Magic’ on there?” She peers over her sister’s shoulder, still trying to balance everything.

“Uh, yeah, number four. Why?” she asks.

“Andre wrote the music for it.” And it was darn good. “He wants me to try out for the lead.”

“You? Why?” She scoffs.

Tori stares at her before giving her her coffee.

“Take the coffee and go.” You would think, that after sixteen years of living with Trina, Tori would be used to it at this point. But she gets worse every year. 

“Ooh, somebody fell down on the wrong side of the parking lot.” It truly is a wonder why.

Tori rolls her eyes, the number of times she’s done that just from this day was not healthy. She once again flops her way to her locker. And just her luck, she runs into none other than the Wicked Witch of the West.

“Need some help?” she says with a sweet voice. Ever since their kiss, Jade’s surprisingly been toning it down on the gank factor. Tori figured it was because she was embarrassed at being shown up by the new girl. On the other hand, though, she’s made quite a good amount of acquaintances because of it.

Still, just because she was being less ganky doesn’t mean she was suddenly nice to her. She weighed the options in her head, she really could use all the help she can get...

Oh heck, why not?

“Yes.” She didn’t mean to sound so desperate, but that’s exactly how it came out.

Jade bumps her in the shoulder. Well, not bump. It was more of a light brush, but it was enough to make Tori lose her balance.

“Interesting.” She was gritting her teeth. And just like that, her books were down and Jade was walking away.

Andre, Robbie, and Rex approaching. Talking about tofu or something. As soon as he sees Tori, he immediately walks over to help her. So does Robbie, though he does drop Rex face down on the floor...

“You okay?” he asks.

“Jade,” she sighs.

He only nods in understanding. The boys place her books on the shelf, Robbie suggesting that she get shelves on her locker.

“There you go.” Tori loved Andre. Not in that way. He was the only one that was there for her in her first days of school. Sure, Trina was there. But she wasn’t _there_ there. And then there was Robbie. He was a little weird at first, she had to admit. But he was a really sweet guy. Rex on the other hand...

Robbie picks up Rex from the floor. He has gum stuck to his forehead. “Never put me down like that again.”

That’s another thing Tori still has to get used to. Rex. She still didn’t understand how he was separate from Robbie. Seriously, it really did look like it was just an excuse for Robbie to be a perv.

Rex smacks him in the face. Well, technically, Robbie smacked himself. “I was helping Tori!”

“Get the gum off my forehead.” He peels it off.

“All right, my locker is filled,” she slams it shut. “I feel complete.”

“Uh-uh, not yet, Tor.”

“What?” Tori didn’t want to have to deal with any more weird school traditions. 

“You gotta customize it.” Great. Wonderful.

Robbie speaks, “Everyone at Hollywood Arts has to customize their locker.”

“Oh,” she said. “Well, what would you do for yours?” She looks at Robbie.

“I made a mosaic using all of the bottle nipples from my childhood.” Tori and Andre both squint at him. He quickly defends himself, “They remind me of a happier time.”

“Yours?” Tori asks Andre.

He beckons for them to follow him. “Check it out.”

“Follow those dreads.” There goes Rex again.

He presents to them a keyboard installed into a locker. Tori wondered if it was functional. Her question gets answered when Andre starts playing a tune. Everyone nearby started dancing along.

“Hey, Andre, Robbie.” Lane walks in, exhaustion spread on his features. “That squirrel’s in my office again.”

“I’ll get the net,” Andre sighs.

“I’ll get the nuts.” They leave Tori alone.

She sighs and heads for class. There is no way she’s ever gonna get used to this school. “I don’t know what to do with my locker.”

“Want to see my locker?” She turns to see a boy with glasses and curly hair. Everything about him screamed ‘creep!’. 

“I guess.” Oh heck, why not?

He turns around and points to a _really_ disgusting locker. “These are pieces of food that I chewed, but never swallowed.” Of course. Of course, why the heck not? “I spit them out, coated them with a polyurethane resin and stuck them on here with an industrial adhesive.”

Tori stares at him blankly. And then she books it. 

She smacks right into someone’s chest, and that someone happens to be Beck. Fortunately for Tori, he didn’t have coffee with him. 

“Oh,” he smiles, and god if it wasn’t the cutest thing Tori has ever seen, “hey, Tori.”

“H-hi!” she stuttered. She wasn’t sure if they were in good terms, she did kiss his girlfriend after all. Completely unscripted. She kissed back. Surely there was going to be a bit of a problem there.

But if there was, he didn’t show it. “Wanna walk to class together?”

“Sure.” They smile at each other for a good few seconds. 

Beck attempts to strike a conversation while they walk. “You know I’ve never seen someone brave enough to shake Jade up like that.”

Her head snaps to look him in the eye. “What do you mean?”

“All she could talk about after class was your kiss.” He laughs. Tori didn’t understand why, if she saw her boyfriend kissing someone else she would punch them. Well, maybe not, but she’d cry about it a lot. Unbelievable, this guy was.

“Uhh...” 

“Not like gushing over how dreamy you are,” he clarified, “nothing like that.”

“Then what did she say?” She kept waiting for him to elaborate, but she would have to prompt him every time.

“A lot of things I can’t repeat in fear of offending slash hurting you.” He stops, but only because they’ve arrived in class. He opens the door. “M’lady.”

A giggle slips out and Beck flashes her a grin in response. Tori pretends not to notice the warning glare Jade was sending their way.

X

The whole entire class was spent zoning out, thinking about, well, nothing in particular. Nothing interesting was happening. Jade and Cat were doing something in front involving a pig? Tori had no clue, she pretty much spent the whole time blankly staring at the taller girl. 

She gets snapped out of her thoughts when Sikowitz throws a ball at Cat mid-sentence and she falls to the ground, with the pig.

“Sikowitz?” The tone of Jade’s voice implies that this isn’t new and that he’s probably done the exact same thing before. Tori caught on that fairly quickly, doesn’t mean she’ll ever get used to it.

“What?” he says innocently.

Cat was up off the ground, rubbing her cheek. “You hit me in the face with a ball.”

“Oh, come on, a truly great actor can stay in the scene no matter what’s happening around her.”

“But it really hurt.” To be fair, if an actor got randomly hit by a ball in the middle of a scene, it would be a confusing situation for everyone.

The bell rang, and the redhead’s mood changed fairly quickly. “Oh, lunch, yay!” She bounces off the stage and out of the classroom, Jade not too far behind.

“Learn your lines,” he calls to the rest of the class who were no doubt, not even paying attention. “I want everyone off book tomorrow.” He picks up the ball, aiming for Tori.

“Hey,” Beck approaches Tori, “you wanna come to lunch with us?”

Tori smiles at that. “Sure, just let me— aah!” The ball came flying towards Tori, knocking down the syllabus near the door and effectively stopping Tori, and Beck and Andre, in their tracks. “What was that for? I’m not acting right now.” Yep, there was no way she was ever gonna get used to this.

“We need to chat.”

“And ‘Tori, can I see you?’ wouldn’t have worked?” 

Andre and Beck leave without her.

“Have fun.” 

“Protect your face.” 

Tori walks up to Sikowitz. “What’s up?”

“I heard you signed up to audition for a play, ‘Moonlight Magic?’” Yeah, and unfortunately, so did Trina.

“Uh-huh, Andre wrote the music for it—” and it was _darn_ good “—and he wants me to play the lead for it.”

“You should.” 

“Yeah?” Tori felt pride swell up at being validated by her teacher.

“But you can’t.”

“Huh?” And there it is.

He turns around and grabs a booklet. “Not until you pass ‘The Bird Scene.’”

“‘The Bird Scene?’”

He explains, “Here at Hollywood Arts, every student must successfully complete ‘The Bird Scene’ before they can audition for any and all school productions.”

She takes the booklet, eyebrows furrowing in confusion and a little bit of frustration. Just when she thinks she’s finally gotten it, she finds out she has to stress out about her locker, and she has to do this, too?

Tori turns around at the sound of Cat’s voice. “Hey, Sikowitz,” she starts, “I forgot to ask you a question about the homework.” She doesn’t get to ask her question when Sikowitz throws the ball at her again, sending her running.

Tori slowly turns to her lunatic of a teacher, eyebrow raised.

“We’ll never know her question.” Mhm, no way she was getting used to this.

X

**Tori Vega:**

must learn “the bird scene”— p.s. my teacher throws balls at people :O

**Mood = Thinky 🤔**

X

“Hey, you know where I could buy a pair of ballet slippers?” Andre asked as soon as he sat down with Beck and Robbie.

Rex and Robbie turn to each other in confusion. 

“No, I don’t,” Rex says. “But I know where you can get yourself a pretty skirt and some lip gloss.”

Beck jumps to Andre’s defense, “Hey, not cool, man.” He redirects his attention to Andre. “Why do you ask?”

“‘Cause I signed up for ballet.” That confused Robbie, Andre’s never shown interest in ballet before. But then again, they weren’t _that_ close. Still, he figured he would’ve known if he did.

“Whoa, whoa, isn’t that kind of... gay?” At least that’s what his dad told him when he tried to sign up.

Andre rolls his eyes. “Yep, just one big room full of girls... and me.” Ah, there it was. “You guys picking up what I’m putting down?”

Beck nods, impressed. “I am.”

“Yeah! Pretty smooth.” He adds, “Maybe Robbie could learn a thing or two.”

As if to prove Rex’s point, Robbie says, “I-I don’t understand.”

“A lot of girls...” Beck tries to spell it our for him. “who dance... all in one room...” Yeah, he still didn’t get it, “with him.”

After an embarrassingly long pause, he exclaims, “Ah, haha!” An idea pops up in his head. “Would you mind if maybe I signed up, too?”

“Nah, go for it.” Andre turns to Beck. “How about you, man?”

“Can’t,” he answers. “Me and Jade already signed up for salsa dancing.”

“I can’t eat salsa.” 

“Why? ‘Cause it hurts your stomach and gives you nightmares?” Andre asks with complete seriousness. Sure, maybe there was a hint of mockery there, but still.

“No,” he answers a little too quickly.

“Yes,” Rex counters.

“Maybe.”

Rex responds with a triumphant ‘ha!’

X

**Tori Vega:**

Doin’ The Bird Scene today. Nervous but READY.

**Mood = Psyched 😆**

X

Tori walked into class expecting, well, she wasn’t sure what she was expecting. But it definitely wasn’t Sikowitz trying to calm down a group of kids yelling at each other with British accents.

“Now that we’re all loosey and/or goosey,” he does a weird little dance, “the time has come for our newest student to tackle...” the class stomps their feet, “‘The Bird Scene’ huh?”

Tori smiles, albeit a little nervous.

“Tori, the stage is yours, though you can’t take it home.”

“Um, can I ask you a quick question before I start?” Jade groans loudly, which Tori can only roll her eyes at. “So...”

“Just do your best. Action!”

“Okay.” She places the book down. Andre sends her an encouraging smile, which does make her feel slightly better.

“It was 1934 when my husband left me.” Tori starts, and it was a good start. She manages to go through the scene without any mistakes. Andre was nodding his head approvingly, and Tori can trust that he’s being honest about it. Cat’s eyes were glued on Tori. Smiling and nodding at just the right moments. Of course, she’s probably had practice on being a good audience, everyone’s had their shot.

“Only a large, majestic bird with whom I shared my feelings.” Jade was making a show of looking bored. Tori wasn’t sure why, but she wanted to impress _her_ in particular. Maybe just to show her that she’s not to be underestimated. If the kiss was uh... any indication. 

“And so was my spirit.” She bowed her head and looked to everyone expectantly. “How was that?”

Sikowitz had to stop himself from sighing. “What do you mean?”

What else could she have meant? “Did I do the scene right?”

“Oh, no,” and there it is, “not at all.”

“Okay, then, what did I do wrong?”

He picks up the booklet and hands it to her. “You’ll have to perform the scene again tomorrow and get it right,” he sends her back to her seat, “or else you cannot be in Andre’s play or any other.”

“But,” she protests, “can you tell me what I did wrong?”

“No, I can’t.”

“I don’t get any feedback?” Tori asks incredulously.

“That is correct.”

“But—”

“Drive-by acting exercise.” He completely ignores Tori and moves on. “You’re all terrified dolphins. Go.”

The class stands up immediately, flopping around and making dolphin noises.

“Live the fear!”

Tori sits back down helplessly. She needed to figure this out. She had to. Andre wanted her on his play and she couldn’t let her friend down.

X

**Tori Vega:**

The Bird Scene... WHAT DID I DO WRONG?!? :(

**Mood = Confused 🤨**

X

Tori chased after her so-called friends, trying to squeeze out the trick to the scene from them.

“Oh, come on. How am I supposed to do the scene right if no one will tell me what I did wrong?” Cat and Robbie looked conflicted about how they were supposed to respond to that. “I thought you guys were my friends.”

“I’m not your friend.” Jade drags Beck to the vending machines, continuing to listen to the group.

Rex gives his very much unwanted input and says, “I was hoping we could be more than friends.”

“Uh, it’s so gross how he’s always hitting on every girl,” Cat says as if Rex wasn’t right there.

“I never hit on you,” he says, almost in a disgusted tone.

Of course, Cat immediately takes offense. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Tori jumps to Cat’s defense. “Come on, Rex,” she sighs, “I’m sure Cat gets asked out by a lot of guys.”

Cat smiles.

“Anyway...” Tori redirects the conversation back to her problem. “My problem?”

“Number one rule of the bird scene:” Beck pipes up, “No one’s allowed to help you.” He and Jade return to them.

“No one,” Rex repeats.

Jade studies the girl’s locker, which wasn’t much in the first place. “So this is what you did with your locker?”

“Yeah,” Tori goes to explain, which unless she was talking to a blind person, wasn’t necessary at all. “See, it’s a dry erase board with a bunch of colorful pens in a convenient cup. So whoever wants to, can write or draw whatever they want.”

“But you’re supposed to decorate it yourself,” Beck says. Tori didn’t get it, isn’t that exactly what she did?

“It’s a Hollywood Arts tradition,” Cat adds.”

“Well, what’s wrong with letting other people be expressive on my locker?” As she says that, Jade had grabbed a marker and started writing on the board.

“Well, for one thing, they can do that.” Robbie points out what Jade had written, ‘Stupid’ in bright red marker.

Tori glared at her retreating back. “Yeah?” she calls out, “Yeah, well my locker’s smarter than your locker.”

“How can a locker be—”

“I don’t know, Cat.” She interrupts, frustrated. “Oh come on,” she rips out the board, deciding that it really was stupid, “somebody tell me how to do the bird scene or I’m gonna cry.”

“Sorry,” Robbie says regretfully.

Cat gives her an awkward pat on the shoulder. “If it makes you feel any better, Robbie cried on his fifth try.” And then she walks away.

Andre comes by to walk with Robbie to their next class. “Time for our first ballet class.” He rubs Tori’s shoulder and gives her a sad smile before walking away.

“Ooh, ballet.” Robbie runs after him excitedly. It was kind of cute. Especially when he does a little jump on his way.

Tori sighs. If she thought her first day was hard...

X

Andre and Robbie stand outside of class, having changed into tights and white tops, Rex matching them.

“I didn’t know I’d feel so awkward wearing tights.” Robbie tries to adjust himself. 

“These things squeeze me in a bad way.” Andre shakes his head, not even wanting to think about the implications of what Rex just said.

“Yeah, you wouldn’t be complaining when we’re surrounded by lady ballerinas.” He stiffs his phone in his pants. He was confident that absolutely nothing could go wrong with this. Positive.

But then as soon as they step in, there’s not a single female in the room with them. Everyone looked just as disappointed as they did.

Rex is the first to express this disappointment. “Aw, man, it’s a dude ranch.”

X

**Tori Vega:**

So ready for The Bird Scene this time. Gonna KILL IT.

**Mood = Determined 😡**

X

Tori was going over everything she needed to go over with Robbie... and Rex. That all went out the window when they start arguing about what happened yesterday in ballet. 

Beck walks up to them. “You ready?” Jade comes over as well, wrapping an arm around Beck’s shoulders.

“Oh, I’m way past ready,” she says in complete confidence, “Sikowitz wants ‘The Bird Scene?’ I’m gonna give him ‘The Bird Scene.’”

She continues, “I got props, I got a backdrop, and just to kiss up a little, I even got Sikowitz two large coconuts.” She conveniently places those two large coconuts in front of her two small coconuts.

Beck smirks playfully. “Those are good ones.” Both Tori and Jade raise an eyebrow. He walks away.

“What’s the deal with Sikowitz and coconuts?” Robbie asks.

Jade shrugs. “He says the milk gives him visions.” She follows after Beck.

The bell rings just as Sikowitz walks in. He flails around at the sight of... absolutely nothing.

“We have much to do today.” He tosses his bag to the side. “But first, Tori, ‘The Bird Scene.’”

She jumps up excitedly. “I’m ready.” She picks up the two large coconuts. “And before I begin, I’d like you to have these two large coconuts.”

“Wonderful.” He sighs. “You know, their milk gives me visions.”

“I’ve heard.” She nods.

“Very good.” He makes his way to the back of the class with his newly acquired two large coconuts. “Everyone, pay attention. Tori?”

“Okay.” She pulls down a backdrop.

“Ooh, a backdrop.” He doesn’t question how she managed to set this up without his knowledge.

“And...” She puts on a pair of glasses. “I am ready.”

“Delightful! Action!” He takes a long sip from the large coconut.

Tori starts. An amused smile was on Andre’s lips.

“No telephone, no radio, only...” She quickly pulls down a stuffed bird, “a large, majestic bird with whom I shared my feelings.”

Jade rolls her eyes. Tori continues. Cat was sitting there nodding along excitedly as if this was the first time she’s ever heard the monologue.

“...for that afternoon, the bird left.” She chucks the bird out of the window. Jade sighs. But Tori only ignored her with the amused expression on Sikowitz’s face. “And so went my spirit.”

She bows. “So? Was that good?”

Sikowitz sighs. “Exactly what are you asking me?”

“You know, did you like what I did with the scene?”

“Sure.” Tori mentally did her happy dance in her head.

“So did I get it right?” Beck grimaces at the question. Jade only sat there, amused.

“Oh, no. You failed. Again.”

“What? Why?” If Tori wasn’t already pissed, she was now. “I did everything—”

The janitor pops into the window carrying her bird. “Hey! Watch where you throw your props!” He chucks it in and Tori has to duck to avoid it. She sighs, eyebrows furrowed.

X

Cat walked through the empty halls, typing on her phone. Tori rushed over to her.

“Cat!”

“Hey!” Cat greeted her excitedly. She thoroughly enjoyed talking to Tori, she was the nicest to her out of everyone in the school.

“You have to try something.” She pulls out handcuffs that she stole from her dad. 

“Ooh, handcuffs.” She nearly drops her phone. “I love handcuffs!”

“Uh-huh...” She hands them to Cat. “Put ‘em on one wrist.” 

She willingly hands over her wrist to the taller girl, smile remaining completely intact. Tori locks her wrist in.

“Good,” she then does the same for the railing, “and now we lock the other part around here.”

“Fun!” Tori was glad that the girl was completely oblivious.

She searches her backpack for the candy she bought the other day. She had meant for it to be for Trina, but this worked too. “Hey, now, try this.”

She gasps. “Ooh, candy.” She takes a few and stuffs them in her mouth. “Mmm, these are so...” She pauses.

Tori smiled. She knew it was cruel, but how else was she going to do this. It was Cat. “So hot!” She spits the candy out. “What are these?”

“Choo-Choo Peppers.”

“Toot!” she exclaims. “Oh, they’re burning my mouth!”

“I know.” She dangles a water bottle in front of Cat’s face. “You wasn’t some water?”

“Yes!” she screams out and reaches for it quickly. But Tori’s faster and immediately snatches it away.

“Tell me the secret of ‘The Bird Scene.’”

“I can’t! And I need water!”

Tori debates with herself in her head. She felt guilty. There was no way she could do this to Cat. She was so innocent.

“Oh, fine.” She relents quicker than she thought she would. In frustration, she hands her the bottle and stomps away.

Cat calls after her, probably so Tori can let her go, but the water drowns out anything she tries to say.

Tori opens her locker, now decorated with a simple pink stripe. She shoves her book in there, not caring if she ends up ruining it.

“Whatcha doing?” Beck is leaned against the lockers next to her.

Tori answers, “Angrily throwing books in my locker, can’t you tell?” She slams it shut.

Beck stares at her bland locker for a few seconds. “Have you figured out how you’re gonna decorate it yet?”

“Yes,” she answers with an exhale, “look, I put a stripe in it. Did you see the stripe?”

“I see the stripe.”

“Well, I don’t know what to do.” She crosses her arms.

“Why don’t you do something, you know, creative and deep?” That’s exactly what Tori was having trouble with.

“What’d you do for yours?”

“Come on.” He leads her across the halls, presenting his locker to her. 

“Clear?”

“Transparent,” he counters as if there was a difference. “I’ve got no secrets and neither does my locker.”

“But... Aw, that is creative and deep.” No way she could come up with something like that.

“Yep,” he says.

“So, anyway...” Just because she failed to get it out of Cat, doesn’t mean she will with Beck. “About ‘The Bird Scene’...”

“Later.” He walks away, leaving Tori disappointed.

Trina comes rushing down the stairs. Cat calls out for help.

“Sorry, gotta get to lunch before they run out of paninis.” And she’s out.

X

“Man, this is humiliating.” 

“Agreed.” Andre’s plan did not work. As evident by the fact that Robbie was surrounded by really attractive boys and not really attractive girls as he had hoped for. “I can’t believe you got us into this.”

His dad would not approve. His dad would _not_ approve.

“Let’s get out of this.” They move to talk to their teacher. Madame Makee?”

“Oui?” It’s not like Madame Makee wasn’t really attractive, it’s just that she was a really attractive _woman_.

“We’re gonna have to drop this class.” 

“If you drop this class then it goes on your permanent record as a zeh-ro.” Robbie inwardly groans.

“Oh, come on,” Andre protests, “you can’t give us a _zeh-ro._ ”

“Why do you want to drop this class?”

“Look around, woman,” Rex says a little too bluntly. “We’re surrounded by dudes in tights.”

Mhm. Big issue.

“It’s just gross.” Madame Makee raises an eyebrow at Rex.

“Hey, sorry I’m late.” It’s as if Andre’s prayers were answered, a girl wearing pink walks in.

“Girl!” A boy in class yells. Everyone rushes over to her, effectively knocking Robbie down and dropping Rex face down. She screams, which you can’t blame her, you would do the same if a class full of horny teenage boys come running at you.

X

**Tori Vega:**

Just thought of a way to find out WHAT’S UP with The Bird Scene...

**Mood = Sneaky 😏**

X

Tori came strutting towards Robbie... and Rex. “Hey, Robbie. Hi, Rex.”

“Hey.”

“What’s doing?”

“Did you guys quit ballet?” she asks.

“We can’t, unless we want a _zeh-ro._ ” He says the last part a bit aggressively.

“Aw,” she starts baby-talking the boy in front of her. “Well, I’m sorry you’re feeling stressed.” She runs her fingers through his hair. 

“Oh, it’s okay,” he says shakily. “I’m sure we’ll— I’m sure we can— would you keep doing that, please?” He practically melts into her touch.

“Sure.”

“This is getting weird.” 

She snaps her head towards Rex and shushes him. “Hey, you know what’s making me feel stressed?”

“Tell me, I’ll kill it.” Good to know she has someone to turn to when Trina becomes too much.

“It’s this whole bird scene thing.” She runs her hand down his arm.

“Ah, there it is, the ulterior motive.” God, this puppet has to go.

“Hush, puppet.” She covers his mouth with her hand, Rex struggling. “You’ll help me with ‘The Bird Scene,’ won’t you?”

“I’m really not supposed to—”

“Ow!” She clutches her hand in pain. “He bit my hand!”

“Rex!” 

“Take me to the bathroom.” Tori raises an eyebrow. “I gotta pee, now!”

Tori gapes at them as he walks away. “He’s a puppet! He can’t pee!”

He calls out, “You don’t know what I got!” She runs her hands through his locker, frustrated beyond belief.

X

Tori had a maybe not-so-bright idea. She was going to pull Jade aside and force her to tell her what she’s doing wrong. Jade was probably the best actress she knew, gankiness be darned.

So she cornered her after Sikowitz's class. And immediately, “No!”

“You didn’t even know what I was gonna say.” Tori steps to the side, deciding that even if she tried to trap her there by force, she would just end up in the nurse. 

“Didn’t have to." She walks away without a second glance. This wasn’t how Tori had planned it, but if she had to follow Jade like a baby duck for the rest of the day then so be it. 

“Oh, would you please just listen to me?” Jade gasps as Tori latches on to her leg. “Please, please, please, please...”

She growls and tries to shake Tori off, but she doesn’t let up. “Let go of me!” Now, Tori has both of her legs wrapped around hers too. “What is your damage?”

“I’m not letting go until you talk to me.” Whining and begging was definitely not part of the plan. “Pleeeeaaaaaaaase...”

They’ve attracted quite a few onlookers. And by a few, that means everyone was watching. “What the hell are you all looking at?”

They turn away and start muttering to themselves, pretending not to sneak a few glances here and there.

“Help me, Jade, you’re my only hope.”

Jade grits her teeth. She studies the girl clinging on to her leg closer. Her eyes were closed shut, right cheek pressed right against Jade’s leg. Her nails were practically digging into her leg, if it weren’t for her jeans, Tori would be drawing a little blood. ‘Please’ was being muttered over and over. Whether it was to Jade or herself, she has no idea.

Finally, she sighs, “Alright, alright!” She attempts to peel Tori off. It doesn’t work. “Now get the hell off of me.”

She perks up at the sound of that. “You’ll really do it?”

“Yeah, whatever.”

She detached herself from Jade and started doing a dance in the middle of the hallway and screaming ‘Yes!’ over and over again, getting louder each time. 

“Thank you so much, Jade, you have no idea how much this me—” The spot where Jade was standing just a minute ago was empty. Without Jade to yell at them, everyone was now just blatantly staring at Tori.

She clears her throat, “Sorry...”

X

Every boy in the class was waiting for their turn to talk to the girl. Their plans were foiled when Madame Makee walks in.

“All right, class.”

“All right.” The boys said in unison.

“Which dancers would like to show me the routine we were working on last time?”

Andre raises his hand. “We would.”

“What?” Robbie was not prepared for this. No, sir, not at _all._

“We got this, man.” He tries to reassure Robbie.

“You’re a maniac!”

“Andre, Robbie, to the front.” She gestures for them to go.

Robbie stares at her nervously and runs to sit Rex down. “Don’t talk to anyone ‘till I get back.”

“Position.” They face away from each other, hands intertwined. “Begin.” She starts the music.

The whole dance was awkward, but it was decent for a pair of beginners. They keep trying to get the girl’s attention. They do, but it’s clear that she’s more amused than impressed. It’s only icing on the cake when they run for each other and end up kneeing each other where it hurts. All the other boys in class cringe at the sight, shifting to protect their precious babies.

Madame Makee stops the music. “Let’s take a five-minute break.”

“Please make it to ten.” It takes everything in Robbie to say that in the first place.

“Twenty.”

X

"I'm coming!" Tori came bounding down the stairs at the incessant ringing of the doorbell.

She swung the door open and came face to face with Jade, finger floating near the doorbell. She gave her a seemingly sweet smile, but it's Jade. 

"Would it kill you to just wait a little?" she said, sighing. "I was taking a shower."

Jade's gaze sweeps over her body, head to toe. "Hm," she raises an eyebrow, "and I’m guessing you rushed to answer the door.”

Tori rolls her eyes and steps aside for Jade to walk in. "Alright, do you want me to recite the monologue to you or what?"

"I don't care, Vega"—she sits on the couch furthest from the door—"do whatever."

Maybe it was a mistake to ask Jade for help. She was probably only here to make fun of Tori. But she came all this way and as much Tori regrets it, she couldn't just turn the other girl away.

She clears her throat and starts reciting it. Admittedly, some parts were... just a tad bit hammy. But Tori was getting frustrated and she was desperate so she might as well just put her all into it.

Jade doesn't say anything the whole time. She's focusing on Tori and _only_ Tori. 

"And apparently, my question rang true," she looks at Jade, "for that afternoon... my bird left."

She swore that she saw a corner of her lips, but if she did, it was gone in a jiffy. Besides, it was _Jade._

Soon enough, Tori was done. She looked at Jade expectantly. "Well?"

Jade sighs and leans back, making a show of checking her nonexistent watch. "What do you want me to say, Vega?"

Tori furrows her eyebrows. "I don't know?" she sighs. "Maybe, 'Oh Tori, you were doing this part wrong and this and this one just downright hurt me'."

"You want me to insult you," she states blankly.

"No!" She plops next to Jade, resting her head on the couch. "I just wish you were a little more helpful."

"Well, Vega," she's stood up and looking down on the younger Vega, "we're not supposed to help new students with the bird scene."

"Then why are you here?" she asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" she sighs when Tori only squints at her. "Listen, I don't care what you do with this scene. All I know is that either way, it's gonna suck. Bad."

Where was she going with this? Tori thought. 

"But Sikowitz is insane and he'll probably accept anything you do no problem."

Has she been paying any attention at all these past few days? Sikowitz obviously thought she was doing something wrong. “Well, what was it like when you did it?”

“Are you kidding?” she asks incredulously. “Who do you think I am?”

“Umm...” Tori pretends to think for a few seconds. “Jade West?”

Jade rolls her eyes. “I got it right on my first try,” she says, a smug look on her face.

“Of course you did.” Tori stands up with a groan. “Of _course_ you did.”

She sighs. "Look, Vega, why don’t you just do that stupid thing—" she waves a hand in front of Tori's face—"that you do?"

Tori's eyebrows knitted together. "What thing?"

Jade rolls her eyes. She sighs before saying, "You know, make it... bright, or whatever."

"Make it shine?"

"Whatever."

Tori couldn't help but smile at that. Maybe Jade West wasn't as bad as she originally thought.

"Wipe that grin off your face, Vega," she snaps, "you look like an idiot."

Tori grins even harder. "Does this make us friends?"

She scoffs, "Not a chance in hell!" Tori grins _even harder._ "I'm leaving. I have to go see Beck. Bye."

She doesn't give Tori the chance to say it back. She's out the door before Tori could start doing her stupid little happy dance.

X

**Tori Vega:**

Ahhh! About to try The Bird Scene AGAIN— WISH ME LUCK!

**Mood = Fierce 😎**

X

The class’s attention is all on Andre and Robbie practically crab-walking, whining at every step.

Jade laughs. “Woah, must’ve been a wild night, eh?”

“Happy birthday.” Sikowitz barges in.

“Whose birthday is it?” Cat asks.

“Somebody’s,” he answers, “somewhere.”

“That’s so true!”

“Where’s Tori?”

Right on cue, she pops in from behind the curtains. “Here.”

He jumps back in surprise. “Oh! Haha!” He laughs. “You brought curtains.”

“Let’s do this,” she says determinedly. 

“Ladies and gentlemen,” he sits at his chair, “once again, ‘The Bird Scene,’ starring Tori...”

She pops out. “Vega.”

“Vega!” He claps twice.

When the curtains pulled apart, Tori is dressed in full costume, she’s transformed the backdrop to a nearly full scene with props, _and_ she has background music. She begins.

“Only a large, majestic bird with whom I shared my feelings.” She whistles and a bird comes flying in. 

“You see the bird, too, right?” Sikowitz leans in to ask Beck.

“Yeah.”

“Fantastic.”

Jade sat there gawking, she wondered when Tori had the time to not only get the bird but to train it to do that. She could even say it was impressive, but she’s not going to.

“...yet you stay, why?” The bird flies away. Beck nods, impressed by Tori’s dedication. “And apparently, my question rang true, for that afternoon my bird left, and so went my spirit.” She bows.

“That...” he stands, “was impressive.”

“So did I get it right?” 

“Nope.”

Jade rolls her eyes with a sigh. And after all that effort she put into... no, she was not going to admit that to herself. She did it only because she couldn’t bear to hear her annoying voice every day in class just for that dumb scene. Yeah, that was it.

“But— But I just— I-I...” She stumbles over her words. “I did, too, get it right!”

“Tori, listen—“

“I’m not trying to be disrespectful. But do you know how hard I worked on this scene?” She had gone on a tangent now. “I made this costume, I downloaded special prairie music, I even trained that crazy cockatoo to fly in and out of the window on command!” The cockatoo flies in right there. “Not now!” And it was off again. 

“Look, I know you’re a great acting teacher and everything, but I don’t care what you say. The scene I just did was good, and I’m proud of it no matter what anybody thinks.” Rant over. 

Beck looks impressed, and Cat is staring at her admiringly. In fact, she claps first, then Sikowitz and Beck, and to her surprise, Jade, then the rest of the class.

“What?”

“You just passed ‘The Bird Scene!’” he exclaims happily. And the rest of the class is cheering again.

Tori pulls out her glasses, majorly confused. “But you said—”

“Tori the whole point of ‘The Bird Scene’ is to teach a performer, like yourself, to believe in your own choices, no matter what others think,” he explains. “We are artists, and a true artist does not define success based on ‘oh, her, hee’ approval from others. A true artist need only please himself... or herself... or itself.” He points out Rex.

“You don’t know what I got!”

“So, all three times I did the scene...”

“Were delightful.” He smiles up at her. “It was only wrong when you asked if it was right, hmm?” 

They smile warmly at each other. Sikowitz couldn’t be prouder at the young student in front of him.

And that’s when it hits her. Her head immediately snaps to Jade, who is now studying the back of Robbie’s head intently. Tori’s smile grows even wider.

“Drive-by acting exercise.” Sikowitz turns to face the class. “You’re all elderly people walking barefoot on broken glass. Go!” 

Everyone jumps up to act it all out. Jade was just glad to change the subject. Sikowitz holds an arm out for Tori, which she gladly takes. And they join the rest of the class with their acting.

X

**Tori Vega:**

Finally... I... am... VICTORIOUS!!!

**Mood = Pumped 😁**

X

Tori held her locker open, ready to reveal to her friends what she’s done with it. “You guys ready?’

“Uh-huh.”

“Yay...”

“Whatever.”

She closes it, revealing a city skyline littered with stars. In big letters, it said ‘Make It Shine.’

“Make what shine?” Trina asks, confusion written across her features.

“It’s the title of the song I sang in the big showcase,” she says as if it should’ve been obvious.

“Oh!”

“Right!”

“Whatever.” 

“‘Cause you know, that’s what got me here in the first place.”

“I don’t like it.” Tori rolls her eyes.

“Maybe the words should be bigger,” Cat suggests. Bless her.

“Yes.”

They all start talking at the same time, drowning each other out.

“Ah-ah. Ah-ah, ah-ah.” She stops them. “I believe in my own choice, and I don’t need approval from others.”

“Ah, the young female has learned the ways of ‘The Bird Scene.’”

“I still think it’s dull.”

“Yeah?” she challenges. “Well, then maybe I should make it ‘bright.’”

Jade squints at Tori, who only smiles in response. She presses a button in the corner and the locker lights up.

“Oh!”

“Very nice!”

This makes Jade even antsier. “Okay, are we going to eat or what?”

And Cat, with her short attention span, was gone.

“Oh, yay, food.”

And Trina’s gone too. 

Only Beck stays behind with them. “Coming with?”

“Give me a second, babe, I need to talk to Tori.” 

He squints at her suspiciously, before giving her a peck on the cheek and following after Cat and Trina. 

“So I’m guessing this is all because of what I said that day?”

Tori smiles smugly. “Maybe.”

Jade glares, but Tori combats it with an even wider smile. “You know the only reason I was doing it was because I didn’t want to have to watch you do that any more than I have to... right?”

“Yeah, sure.” That answer pissed Jade off even more. But maybe it isn’t a good idea to poke her eyes out in the middle of the hallway. Tempting, though.

“Yeah, whatever.”

She turns away and Tori rushes next to her. “Does this make us friends?”

“No!”

She walks faster to get away and Tori shakes her head. That’s it. She’s making it her personal mission to make this girl her friend, whether she likes it or not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is, broskis. Second episode!


	3. Stage Fighting

“And I was just sitting there, staring...” Andre nods along as he listens to Cat’s story, which for once he was interested in without being weirded out. “So I was smiling like this, right?”

Andre didn’t see a difference in how she smiled at him and how she smiles normally, but he nods anyway. “And it was so embarrassing, apparently Mr. Gradstein was trying to get my attention for the whole entire class. True story.” She gets cut off when Andre notices Tori struggling to get a french horn into her locker.

“Tori!” He yells out. 

An even brighter smile appears on Cat’s face when she notices her. “What’s up?” 

“I’m having a horn problem.” She sighs. “Why do I have to play an instrument anyway?”

“Everyone at Hollywood Arts has to play an instrument,” Cat explains.

Tori rolls her eyes in return. “Okay, well, I sing, my throat is my instrument,” she says, touching her throat. “I’m a throat player.” She smiles.

“Doesn’t count.”

“And it sounds kinda gross.” Tori stares at the shorter girl. She didn’t even think about how it would sound.

“Why did you pick the french horn?” Andre asks.

“I don’t know,” she answers, “I like french fries, french toast...”

“One time when I was eating french toast at a restaurant, I started laughing, and then I started choking, so the lady who ran the restaurant made me leave.” Tori stares at Cat blankly, and Andre only shakes his head at her. Cat isn’t the least bit bothered by it at all. “So let’s hear your horn!”

Tori sighs and lifts the instrument.

“Yeah, play that funky music, white girl.”

Tori sighs once again. “You know, I’m half Latina.”

Andre corrects himself. “Then hit it, muchacha.” Tori does laugh a little at that.

She closes her lips around the mouthpiece and starts playing. Badly. Cat at least tries to put on a polite smile, but Andre’s not even bothering to hide his expression. It doesn’t matter either way, as Tori realizes the same. She stares at the mouthpiece for a moment with a tight-lipped smile.

“I think it’s broken.”

Cat nods, not wanting to hurt Tori’s feelings.

“Here,” Andre takes it from her hands, “let me fix it.” He starts playing it in the middle of the hallway. Amazingly. Cat starts dancing along to the music, and so do other kids. Some even join in with their own instruments. 

The redhead turns around. “It’s not broken.” Tori only gives her ‘the look’. You know the look.

X

Tori ends up grumbling on her way to her class. First, there was the issue she was having with her instrument, then there was Jade nearly cutting off a large chunk of her hair. It hasn’t been a good day for her so far.

It only gets worse when she finds Beck in a fight with another guy, and he’s losing. She panics when Beck gets launched over a table. “Beck!” she exclaims. “Hey, hey, you guys!”

She takes her bag off. “Leave him alone!” She runs over and climbs the other guy’s back. Beck tries to yell at her to stop, but she’s not listening. Of course, that’s when everyone else in class walks in and the teacher and Andre peel her off.

“What are you doing?” Her teacher asks, and he sounds angry.

“That guy was beating up Beck,” she tries to explain, but everyone just rolls their eyes and sighs in annoyance. Everyone except Cat, Beck, and Andre.

Jade comes to Beck’s side. “Oh, you poor thing,” she says mockingly.

“We were practicing,” Beck explains.

Their teacher sighs and runs a hand through his hair. “This is Russ.”

“I’m Russ!” Russ says rather enthusiastically.

“He’s a professional stuntman I invited to teach the class about stage fighting.”

Of course, Jade just had to add a little jab in there. “And now Tori says, ‘What’s stage fighting?’” She says, mocking Tori’s voice in a way that doesn’t sound like Tori at all.

Tori rolls her eyes. “I wasn’t gonna say that.” She turns to Andre. “I mean, it’s literally in the name.”

“I took a class with him last summer,” Beck adds.

“Well, it looked like he was hurting you.” Beck smiles at her.

The moment doesn’t last, Jade pipes in. “Why do you care?”

“‘Cause I figure he already suffers enough pain dating you.” So much for trying to be friends.

Jade detaches herself from Beck and faces Tori, nose to nose. “You wanna see pain?”

Beck decides that Jade isn’t going to do anything too bad and waits to see how Tori would defend herself. She doesn’t say anything, she only answers with a challenging gaze. They stay that way for a moment. 

Jade looks away first, and Tori has to stop herself from doing her little happy dance. Jade walks away, tugging Beck along. And Tori can’t help but stare after them. She snaps out of it eventually and drags Andre aside. 

“Why does she hate me?”

“Maybe she heard you play the french horn.” Tori rolls her eyes.

Once they all sit down and have themselves all situated, the class starts. Russ decides to demonstrate the important part of the lesson by demonstrating on Cat.

“Now, if I throw a punch at Cat like this...” he takes a swing at Cat, just a few away from her nose. She gasps, and then she smiles. “It’s easy to see that my first didn’t connect with her face.”

“Thank you.”

“But if we stage it from a different angle...” he positions Cat so his back is turned away from the class. “Then... like I showed you?” She nods. “Sound effect ready?” 

“All set.” 

“To the audience or camera,” he continues to explain, “it’ll look like this.” He takes a swing at her once again and Cat rolls with the punch this time. 

She steps up to reassure everyone. “I’m okay, everyone!” She says it with a large smile on her face. It’s adorable. Everyone claps, really only mildly impressed.

Their teacher walks up with a clipboard in hand. “Alright, I’m gonna pair you guys up.” He places a firm hand on Russ’s shoulder. “Each team will work with Russ this week to prepare a fight scene.”

“I thought his name was Steve?” Andre asks.

“He does look like a Steve,” Tori adds. The class starts chattering with agreement. Russ does indeed look like a Steve.

“My Name is Russ!” He yells out.

“Okay,” the poor man does not get paid enough for this, “and on Friday, you will all perform your fight scenes here in front of the class.”

Russ walks away to allow Liam to announce the pairs.

“Now, the pairs will be:” Tori leans forward, excited to find out who she could end up with. “Beck and Cat, Andre and Gwen, Darren and Jess, Tori and Jade—”

Tori jumps up. “Tori and who?” 

Jade gives her an eyebrow flash and a wide smile. Well. Guess that means she ends up with Jade. She quickly grabs her bag as soon as the bell rings and voices her complaints to her teacher.

“Uh, wait, I’m not comfortable with my partner.” She wanted to be friends with Jade, but absolutely not after getting beaten up. No, sir.

“Just a sec.”

“Hey, partner.” She groans inwardly when she hears the voice that she knows all too well. “I can’t wait for our fight...” she pauses, “scene.”

Beck rolls his eyes.

“Gulp.” Well, this is what she wanted, right? A chance to get closer to Jade.

X

**Tori Vega:**

My life = in DANGER

**Mood = Yikes 😬**

X

“Uhh, why am I in the janitor’s closet?” Robbie asks. “I have an audition in like, ten minutes.” He didn’t know what happened, one second he was going through his lines and then the next thing he knew he was being dragged into the janitor’s closet.

“Cat needs to tell you something.” Said girl squeaks and latches on to Andre’s forearm.

“No, I don’t.” She shakes her head vigorously, completely red in the face.

For some reason, this excites Robbie. “Y-you do?”

“Ooh, don’t get your hopes up, boy...”

“Rex!”

“What? You know what happened last time a girl needed to tell you something.” As soon as the words leave Rex’s mouth, Robbie clasps a hand over it.

“W-what is it, Cat?” he asks, now nervous about what Rex could reveal, but hopes not any lowered.

“Nothing! I don’t wanna tell you anything.” She yells out and tries to run away, but is stopped when Andre pulls her back.

“Yeah, you do.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Yeah.”

“No.”

They continue to go back and forth for a while until they get interrupted by the door opening. Walking in just so happens to be Jade and Tori, the latter not looking so happy to be there. They all stare at each other like that for a long moment, before Tori decides to break the silence.

“Heyyyy,” she says, drawing the vowels out, “whatcha guys doi—”

“Out.”

“Umm, actually, Cat was—”

All it takes is one sharp glare from Jade and the boy is gone. Rex yells something out, but Robbie’s even faster.

“Jade!” Tori glares at the taller girl.

“What?” She turns to see that Cat and Andre haven’t left yet. “Well?”

Andre raises his hands in surrender. “Alright, man. Cat?”

Cat follows him without sparing a glance towards the pair.

X

**Tori Vega:**

Lunch time. Salad with big lettuce. Still worried.

**Mood = Buggin’ 😫**

X

Tori sits and listens to Andre and Cat talk about... she has no idea. Truthfully, she was focusing on Jade more than she was on her peers. Every single thing that could go wrong with their fight scene is playing through her mind as she violently stabs her lettuce.

“Look at her.”

“Who?” Andre asks. He wasn’t as supportive as she was hoping he would be. It was starting to make her doubt all her worries. Maybe Jade really was trying to be nice? No, there’s no way. She was way too nice. It can’t be that easy, right?

“Jade!” she snaps. “I guarantee you she’s telling Beck all about how she’s gonna punch me when we do our scene.” 

As if Cat wasn’t even paying attention, she starts wondering out loud. “I wonder if mirrors work in outer space.” Both of her friends stare at her, confused.

Tori shakes her head, opting to ignore the other girl instead. “I mean, what am I gonna do if she really hits me?”

Andre rolls his eyes. “Bleed, burst into tears.” 

“I’m serious.” There’s a whine in her voice when she says this. One that makes Andre feel bad for his best friend. 

“It’s stage fighting. No one really hits anybody.” His reassurances don’t work, Tori’s just as worried as she was twenty minutes ago.

“Yeah, but accidents happen, and what if she makes an accident happen on purpose?” She pulls out a large piece of lettuce with her fork, and she decides to take her anger out on it too by violently shaking it. Seriously, who prepares this stuff?

“You know the word mirror has only six letters and half of them are ‘R’s?”

Much like Tori did, Andre ignores her. “Haven’t you and Jade been rehearsing?”

“Yeah, yesterday after school and this morning during study hall.” And as much as she hates to admit it, she was being civil about it all. It still doesn’t do anything to ease her worries.

“And did she hit you for real?”

“No, ‘cause she probably wants to wait and do it in front of the whole class to humiliate me.” Hey, it was Jade.

“Well, if she does, she loses half a letter grade.”

“Oh, great.” Tori starts sarcastically. “So she gets an A-minus and I get a broken eye and a black nose.” 

“I think you meant—”

“I know what I meant.”

“My dog has a black nose, it’s so cute.” And there she goes again. “It’s like a baby meatball.”

“Meatballs are brown,” Andre points out.

Cat processes it in her head for a second before suddenly grabbing her bag and drink. “You’re so mean to me!” She storms off.

“You want half her sandwich?”

“I would, but...” He grabs his bag too and runs after Cat, leaving Tori to worry on her own.

Trina comes up behind Tori, who is now worriedly chewing on Cat’s sandwich... whatever that means. “Hey, baby sister.”

“Hey,” she greets, “wanna watch me slowly go into a state of paranoia?”

“No.” She says it a little too cheerfully and unbothered for Tori’s liking.

X

“Hey, Cat!” He calls after her, barely keeping up. She’s fast. “Cat!”

She abruptly turns around, causing Andre to nearly smack against her. “Hi, Andre!” He just gives her an incredulous look. 

“Um, hey,” he responds tentatively, “listen, we need to talk.”

“About what?” She knows exactly what, she just refuses to say it.

“You know... _that person._ That you—”

She shushes him. “Not here!”

Andre scans the hallway. “There’s no one here.”

“Just because you can’t see them doesn’t mean they’re not listening.”

Andre furrows his eyebrows in confusion. “Wha-? You know what, whatever.”

“Can I go now?”

“No,” he answers. “Look, Cat, our friends aren’t gonna judge you for your little crush. You know that, right?”

“Jade will.”

“Okay, maybe we just won’t tell Jade.” Cat nods her head in agreement, but it’s clear that she still isn’t so sure. Andre sighs. “Look, just think about it, alright? Watching you two talk to each other knowing what’s goin’ on? It ain’t fun.”

Cat nods her head again and walks away. This time Andre doesn’t stop her.

X

**Tori Vega:**

Time for stage fighting class. Should I ditch? I wish.

**Mood = Freaked 😣**

X

Tori can’t even focus on everyone else’s scenes. She’s too busy worrying about her own. She vaguely remembers Cat and Beck’s being about some sort of catfight over another girl, but she wasn’t sure. She was pretty sure Beck was wearing a wig though. No clue why.

She gets snapped out of her thoughts when Andre is thrown against a table. And all of a sudden that anxiety is back and stronger than before.

“All right.” _Please don’t be me and Jade, please don’t be me and Jade, please don’t be me and—_ “Next up, we have... Tori and Jade.” _Oh god, it’s me and Jade._

She reluctantly gets up and grabs her props from Andre, who mouths to her that she’s got this.

“Um, okay,” she tries her best to keep her voice from sounding too shaky. And for someone who’s partnered up with Jade, she’s doing a fine job, “for our scene, I’m gonna be playing an old lady who’s walking home from a bingo game.”

“And I play a brutal mugger.” Her attempts to calm down all go away when Jade introduces her role with way too much enthusiasm.

“Yes, a brutal mugger who mugs me without actually hurting me.” She turns to Jade, who is not so subtly glaring at her.

Russ speaks up. “Okay as always, be careful, and if anything goes wrong, just yell the safe word, which is... butternut.”

“Okay, guys, ready?” They both position themselves just like they rehearsed. “And...”

“Butternut!”

“What?” Everyone stares at Tori, confused.

“Tori, what’s the problem?”

“I was testing the safe word.” She tries to play it off. “It works.” It doesn’t work.

At the sound of Jade sighing and rolling her eyes— which Tori can’t actually hear... or see, she can just feel it— she decides to stop stalling and get it done and over with. “Okay, I’m ready.”

“And... action.”

Tori starts to speak in a terrible imitation of an old lady. “Oh, I certainly did enjoy the bingo, although I do miss Bob Hope.” Everyone laughs at the joke, which by the way, Tori added into the script. Jade thought it was lame and that no one would find it funny so, ha! Point, Tori.

She suddenly feels Jade latch onto her shoulders. “Give me your money,” she says in a deep, gruff voice. Jade was just going to use her normal voice, this was Tori’s idea too. She’s also less annoying like this. 

“What?”

“I ain’t playing. Give me your money and your watch.” Cat smiles at Tori, telling her that she’s doing great so far.

“Oh, wouldn’t you rather have this?” Tori swings her cane at Jade’s eye. But it sounded like it actually did connect and Jade falls. 

“Butternut!” She stands up, hand on her eye.

“She’s bleeding.” Cat runs over, and so does everyone else.

“Cut!” Ooh, she is in it now.

“Let me see, let me see.” Everyone was fussing over her, and Tori didn’t understand what went wrong.

“Are you okay?”

“No!” She points an accusatory finger in Tori’s direction. “Tori hit me in the face for real.”

“No, I didn’t.” Tori tries to defend herself, but she knows everything else is pointing at her right now.

“Tell that to my bloody eye.” She exclaims in pain and Tori scoffs inwardly. There’s no way anyone believes that crappy acting, right? She doesn’t know how to explain the blood but there has to be something.

Tori tries to get a little heat off of herself when they ask to have Jade be seated. Unfortunately for her, it was a breakaway chair. As Russ so kindly yells at her for.

Jade glares at her, and Tori just knows she’s in deep chiz. “Aw, butternut!”

Everyone’s now crowded around Jade and fussing over her. Even if she did hit her, it was just a bruise. It’s not like it was that big of a deal. Andre gives her a disapproving glance.

Cat turns around and comes up to them. “Hey, Tori, are you okay?”

Tori furrows her eyebrows. “Shouldn’t you be asking Jade that?”

“Well...” Andre raises an eyebrow at her and Cat immediately looks away. Tori decides not to question it. “You know how Jade can be.”

“So you believe me when I say I didn’t hit her?” Tori ignores how Andre rolls his eyes.

“Yeah.” They both smile at each other.

“Thanks, Cat.”

They’re only cut off by Andre clearing his throat. “Don’t wanna interrupt this moment, but shouldn’t you be apologizing to Jade?”

Tori stomps her way to the crowd. “Jade, you know I didn’t hit you. I swung but I missed.” And she did, she really did.

“Look, Tori...” The taller girl makes a show of fainting, and Tori could only roll her eyes at that. 

“Hey, we gotta get her to the nurse...”

“But, I didn’t hit her.”

“Can someone call my mom?” 

“I’ll call your mom,” Beck calls after her, carrying all her stuff.

Tori snaps, “She doesn’t need her mom. Don’t bother her mom.”

“I gotta call her mom.” An order from Jade is an order from Jade.

“And I thought we were just starting to be friends.” Oh, real classy, using that stuff against her. She feels a bit better when Cat pats her on the back, albeit a little awkwardly.

“Hey, Tori?”

“Yeah, Cat..?”

“Do you wanna hang out after school tomorrow?” she asks, a trace of hope in her voice.

“Yeah, sure. I’m asking Andre to come along too if you don’t mind.”

Cat looks a little crestfallen. Why? Tori has no clue. “If you want, I can ask Robbie to come.” She elbows the shorter girl, lightly.

“No, no, don’t.” The panicked expression on her face makes Tori chuckle.

“If you’re sure.”

She nods vigorously. Tori laughs again and they both walk out of class together, Tori’s spirits lifted even just the tiniest bit.

X

“Come on, Tori, I’m sure it’s not that bad. Jade will be fine.”

“But I didn’t hit her!” Tori and Andre were sitting at the dining table. When Tori asked her friends to come hang out with her, Jade is the last person she wanted to be the topic of conversation. “Just— whatever!” 

To her relief, the doorbell rang. She immediately runs over and answers it, on the other side is Cat.

“Hiiii!” She greets her, carrying a box of donuts.

“Cat!”

“Hey!” Andre yells out, now sitting on the couch. Cat joins him.

“I have a bunch of movies I think we should watch.” Tori looks around the room for a second. “I think they’re with Trina. Just a sec.”

“Open her up,” he says up gesturing to the box of donuts.

To his confusion, Cat glares at him. “You don’t know if it’s a girl...”

“No, I just—” He sighs. “Just open the box...”

He raises an eyebrow when he sees that half of the donuts are blueberry. “Seriously?”

“Tori likes blueberry donuts...” She mutters, loud enough for Andre to hear. He decides it’s best if he just didn’t comment on it. 

“I’ve got the movie.” Andre cheers, but Cat just smiles.

“Put her in!”

“You don’t know if that’s a girl, either!” Tori and Andre blankly stare at her. “Gosh, Andre...”

X

**Tori Vega:**

OMG - I just got called to the GUIDANCE COUNSELOR’S OFFICE. Whyyyyy?!?

**Mood = Frustrated 😠**

X

Tori sighs as soon as she walks into the office. 

“Oh, hey, Tori.” Tori pouts. This is not how she wanted to spend her free time at all. “Have a seat.” She plops down, a little frustrated.

“You look a little worried.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not fun getting called into the guidance counselor’s office.”

He laughs. “You’re not in trouble.” Yeah, Tori had a feeling she really kinda is. “I’m here to help you with your violence issues.” Woah, what?

“I’m not violent!” She immediately jumps to her own defense, because she really isn’t.

“I believe you.” 

“Then why is he here.” She turns her gaze to the security guard at Lane’s side. “Explain that.”

“Tori, I know that Jade probably isn’t your favorite person.” Righto.

“So?”

“So in life, just because we may not like someone, that doesn’t mean it’s okay to beat ‘em with a cane.”

“I don’t hate Jade!” He gives her a disbelieving look. “She can just be annoying sometimes... but I don’t hate her. She’s the one that hates me!”

The security guard reaches for his taser. “Oh, relax, Derek!” She sighs and attempts to calm herself. “I did not hit Jade with that cane.”

“Then how do you explain her black eye.” Now that one’s hard.

“Uh, I don’t know.” Tori reaches for her water bottle. This conversation was draining. She notices Derek reach for his taser once again. “I’m just getting water.”

“Listen, you were under a lot of stress and you were worried that Jade was gonna hit you, right?” Righto...

“Well, yeah.”

“So you were afraid,” he tries to explain it to her, “your adrenaline was pumping, and maybe in the heat of the moment, you swung on Jade with that cane for real. Maybe...”

Tori contemplates what he says for a second. Maybe he was right.

“Maybe,” Derek adds unhelpfully. They both turn to him and he takes his cue to back off.

“I guess it’s possible,” Tori admits.

“Ah-hah!” They both jump at Derek’s sudden outburst.

“Derek!” Lane exclaims. He sighs. “Now, don’t you feel better admitting that you hit Jade?”

Tori sighs, she didn’t, but whatever. “If I say yes, can I go?”

“Sure.”

“Okay, fine, then, yes,” she says.

“Wait, aren’t you gonna punish her?” Darn, goody two shoes.

“Derek!” 

Lane jumps between them. “Don’t hit him!” As if she would try it with this guy.

“I wasn’t gonna. Can you just tell me my punishment?”

“Two weeks of detention.” 

“Oh.” She’s never had detention before. Oh no, her perfect record.

“And...”

“And?” And there’s more.

“On Friday night,” he adds, “The middle school’s doing a play here in the Black Box Theatre. It ends with a big food fight scene.”

“So?” She asks him, but she knows exactly what’s coming and she doesn’t want to hear it at all.

“So you have to clean the theatre after the show,” he says. “You know scrape the food off the walls.”

“I’d have said three weeks detention.” Goody two-shoes...

“Derek!” They both flinch away, Lane not bothering to step between them.

“I’ll pull it.”

“ _I’ll_ pull it.” Tori tries to muster as much Jade as she can. Maybe it’s working?

X

Jade doesn’t eat her lunch, she only mixes them around. You know, to look pitiful and shit. She straightens up when she sees Beck come over.

“Hey,” he greets, “how ya feeling?”

“My eye hurts.”

“Oh yeah, which one?” He jokes. In return, Jade fixes him an unamused look.

“Cute.” She whines, “I want coffee.”

“What’s the magic word?”

“Get me some coffee...” she demands, “please,” she says with a rather uncharacteristic pout.

“Actually the magic word was lotion. But I’ll accept your ‘please’ ‘cause you got a boo-boo eye.”

“Two sugars,” she calls out.

“I know what to do.”

Beck’s been treating her extra nice since Tori ‘hit’ her with the cane. And you know what? She didn’t feel the least bit terrible about it. If Tori was going to try to steal everything from her, why not have a little fun while showing her who’s boss.

Meanwhile, Andre was bored. He’s been watching Cat poke through her lunch for the past few minutes. Usually, she has something to say but apparently not this time.

“You okay?” Andre asks, concern written all over his face.

“I told Robbie.”

“And?”

“He was okay with it.” That was it?

“That’s good!”

“No, it’s not!” She exclaims, causing other kids to snap their heads towards them, including Jade. “It makes me feel even more bad.”

“Cat...”

“What if Jade finds out?” She lowers her voice, aware of how the girl was now staring at them. “She’s gonna hate me.”

“Who cares if Jade finds out?”

“I have a feeling...” She mutters something that Andre can’t quite catch. Knowing that nothing he says could reassure her, he just keeps quiet and they’re back to silence.

X

Jade turns around when she hears a girl gasping as ice is poured down her shirt. 

“Oh, you guys,” she picks up her drink, “you’re so dead.” She throws it at their face but they dodge, and she ends up spilling it on Jade instead. “Oh my god, Jade. I’m so sorry, please don’t destroy me socially, I didn’t mean to.”

Jade was about to give it to her when she notices that her make up was slowly coming off. “Just forget it.” She quickly grabs her bag and walks away, not even waiting for her coffee.

“Oh my god, Andre, did you just see that?”

“Yeah...” Andre picks up his stuff. “I’m going after her.”

X

“Hey, Jade, wait up!” Andre could’ve caught up to her faster if it weren’t for Lane yelling at him to stop running. “Jade, wait up, wait up.”

“What?!” she yells.

“Oh, what’s wrong with your eye?” he asks, though he already knows what.

“Tori hit me with a cane, remember?” she answers, trying to avoid Andre’s gaze.

He scoffs, “Yeah, but never seen a black eye—” he touches it, and the makeup easily comes off, “—drip before. This is makeup.”

He takes Jade’s silence as an answer. “Tori never hit you, did she?”

“I-I,” she sighs.

“Fake black eye, fake blood.”

She groans, “Look, you cannot tell anyone about this, especially Tori.”

“I won’t,” he lies. But just as Jade was starting to back away— “Tori!”

“Shut up!” Jade chases after him, knocking a few students down along the way.

“Andre!”

“Tori!”

“Will you please stop?”

“Anybody seen Tori?”

“Nobody bother Tori. False alarm. He ate a bad taco.”

X

**Tori Vega:**

Um, whoa. Andre just told me something X-TREMELY interesting. I KNEW IT!!!

**Mood = Grrrrr 😡**

X

Tori groaned in disgust as she scrapes away what she _thinks_ is mac ‘n’ cheese. 

“Is that mac ‘n’ cheese?” The butthole that got her into this mess in the first place asks her. 

She snaps, “Who cares?!”

Derek raises an eyebrow. “Just wanted to know if it was mac ‘n’ cheese.” He walks away and goes back to whatever he was doing. 

Tori turns around to see Jade freakin’ West behind her. “I don’t get it.”

“What?” She shrugs.

“I know Andre told you that I faked everything, the blood, the black eye—” she squints, “—what is that, mac ‘n’ cheese?”

“Looks like it, right?” Tori sends a sharp glare towards the guard’s direction. She gets up to meet Jade.

“Why are you here?”

“Why are _you_ here?” she asks, raising her voice slightly. “Why didn’t you tell on me?”

“‘Cause,” she starts, “we both go to school here and it’s not gonna be much fun for either one of us if we’re fighting all the time.” Tori walks past her, oh so eager to get back to cleaning.

“So, you’re just gonna let me get away with it.” She was clearly having a hard time comprehending it, she wouldn’t have done the same for Beck, much less Tori. “You took detention _and_ a lower grade _and_ you’re scraping crusty pudding off the wall on a Friday night, just so I won’t get in trouble?”

“Pretty much.” She nods.

“Well,” she continues, “you can’t be nice to me when I’ve been mean to you, that’s not how it works.”

That frustrates Tori even more. “Well, then, try being nice to me sometime. Maybe that will work.” She shakes her head. “Now, go play. I gotta scrape this onion dip off the wall.” She pauses to sniff it. “Or onion pus...”

She continues to scrape the food off the wall. To her surprise, she hears scraping behind her too. She turns to see Jade doing the same, and in return smiling at her hostilely. Despite herself, a smile creeps its way onto her face.

“This—” she turns to the button on the wall, “—might be more fun with some tunes.” She trips on her way and in true Jade fashion, she plays it off. She starts dancing, swinging her towel around. Soon, Tori joins in on too, and for the first time, she’s actually having fun with _Jade._

When Tori notices Derek nodding along, she calls for him. “Hey, D, come scrape with us, this is fun,” she says, Jade beckoning him to come over.

He thinks for a second. “Alright.” He bends down to pick off a scraper. Tori bumps his hip, dancing her way to Jade.

“Here, try it with two.” Tori was only asked him to help because she thought it might be fun, Jade, on the other hand, had another motive. She taps Tori, and together they slowly exit, dancing on their way.

It takes Derek a while to notice they were gone. But when he did notice, well...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am well aware of the lack of Jori on this one, but... next chapter will be focused mostly on Jori...


	4. Date Night Fright

“What?” Jade and Tori both say in unison. They were both standing in front Lane after getting called up to his office.

“You girls heard me.” He looks in between them, and the tight smile he has lets both girls know that he is serious. “Jade, you’ll have to serve two weeks of detention. And Tori, you’ll only have to serve tomorrow’s.”

“How did you even- who- what?” Tori stumbles over her words.

Lane sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Derek told me. All about how Jade lied and how _you—_ ” he points his eyes towards Tori, “—escaped punishment.”

“Wha—” Tori shakes her head. “But I didn’t even—”

“I will hear none of it. You’ll both be serving your detentions, and you will do so without any objections.” He shifts his gaze between both girls, making sure they understand him. “Do I make myself clear?”

“Yeah...” Tori groans.

Jade grumbles. Derek. Damn goody-two-shoes. She storms out, Tori following closely behind her.

“Hey!” She walks by Jade’s side, but the other girl continues to look straight ahead. “I am so sorry, Jade.”

“For what?” she snaps. Tori stands there wringing her hands, incapable of coming up with an answer.

“For, well—” she pauses to think, Jade staring at her. “You’re only in trouble because of me, sooo...”

Jade rolls her eyes and stomps away again. “Jade!”

X

“I just don’t understand...” Tori sighs. “One minute, we’re having fun, the next she can’t wait to hang my head up on her wall.”

Beck answers, “She doesn’t hate you...” Tori gives him a pointed look. “Y-you know, she’s just Jade.”

“I wouldn’t worry about it too much, Tori,” Andre adds. “At least you get a week off your detention.” He raises a fist. In turn, Tori directs the pointed look towards him.

“I’m glad I don’t have to get punished any more for something I didn’t do, but still...” she pauses to take a bite out of her salad, “I feel like I was so close to finally cracking her.”

Jade had refused to sit next to them, going as far as to eat inside. 

“Hey,” Beck lightly punches her on the shoulder, “you know it took me almost all of middle school to actually get her to admit she likes me.”

“That’s different, Beck.” Tori sighs. “The only reason that worked out for you is because she _like_ liked you. Jade doesn’t even like me.”

“Look, Tori, maybe you should just stop worrying about Jade.” Andre steals a fry from Beck, who glares in response. “You know, we’re all hanging with Cat at Karaoke Dokie tomorrow. Beck’s coming.” He nods at Beck’s direction.

“Damn right I am.”

“Detention, remember?” She reminds the two boys.

“Oh, yeah,” Beck laughs, much to her frustration, “good luck with that.”

The bell rings and Beck leaves, Andre stays behind and places a hand on her shoulder. “You’re gonna be alright, alright?”

Tori nods, but she isn’t so sure.

X

**Tori Vega:**

Lane is out for my blood! @JadeWest if you’re reading this, i’m sorry!!!

**Mood = Sorry 😅**

X

“Do I need to explain what’s goin’ on here?” Dickers asked. “No talking, if I even hear a peep—” he points his finger at both girls, “—you’re done.”

Tori squeaks, a sharp contrast to Jade, who rolls her eyes. All of Tori’s teachers have been nice to her, to be faced with a terrifying as chiz vice principal? She can handle Jade just fine.

He pulls out a cardboard box. “Phones.” Tori complies and turns to Jade. Just as she expected, the corners of her mouth were turned up, but there’s a dangerous glint in her eyes. She immediately takes back her previous thought, she would take Dickers over Jade any time of day. “I _said_ phone.”

“Hmm...” She taps a finger on her chin, pretending to think about it. “Nah.”

“Final warning.”

“Ooh, then what?” Tori flinches away for Jade. She’s already gotten her in enough trouble. She didn’t want what’s definitely about to happen happen.

Dickers glowers at her. “One more day of detention.”

She cocked her head to the side. “Interesting. What else?”

“One more week. Plus Saturday.”

Jade laughs and raises her hands in surrender. “Can’t argue with that.” She pretends to turn her phone in, but continues to hang it over the box, prompting Dickers to yank it from her. Normally Tori would find something like this funny, but she was too worried about Jade serving three weeks of detention to even smile.

Suddenly, Beck comes running in. “Mr. Dickers! I need you to come with me.”

He shifts his attention to the boy in front of him. “What is it?”

“Cat’s stuck in a hole.”

Dickers sighs. “Pull her out of the hole.”

Beck runs a hand through his hair. “You don’t understand, sir, she’s stuck in a _wall_.” 

“I- how—” He looks between the two girls and Beck. Finally, he groans. “Lead me to her—” he turns to the girls, his expression alarming Tori, “—you two aren’t going anywhere.”

Beck winks at them, earning a smirk from Jade and a dropped jaw from Tori. They step out, Dickers bringing the box with him, much to Jade’s disappointment.

A few minutes of nothing but silence passes. Tori’s sitting there, playing with a string she cut from her shirt. She could feel Jade’s gaze burning into her but she was determined to ignore it. 

“Hey, Tori.” _Oh god. “_ Why are you sitting all the way across the room?” _Just ignore her._ “Get your ass over here.” She slams a boot down on the seat right next to her’s.

Tori glances over, but she brings her head down just as quickly. She hears a sigh, footsteps, and Jade was now sitting next to her. “Hey.” She whimpers and buries her head into her arms. “What the hell are you doing?” 

She squeaks in response. She hears another sigh, unzipping, and something light, but hard being placed on the table. Tori looks up to see the other girl scrolling through NickFinder on her PearBook.

Sensing the shorter girl’s curiosity, she explains, “Hidden compartment in my backpack.” She turns to Tori with a soft smile, but it’s gone before she can be sure that’s what she really saw. “Wanna watch?”

When Tori doesn’t answer she pulls out her earbuds. “Eh, it’s probably too freaky for you anyway.”

“No!” 

She raises an eyebrow at the sudden outburst. “You wanna watch?”

Tori nods her head firmly, a determined look in her face. It’s adorable. _Woah, what?_

She takes the earbuds out and puts them away, pushing the laptop so it’s between them. She shakes off the previous thought she just had.

“Wait, I should call Trina and tell her to bring snacks.”

“Go ahead.” Jade continues to scroll, ignoring the expectant look Tori was giving her.

“Um...” She points to her PearBook. “He took our phones remember?”

Jade rolls her eyes but hands her the device anyway. After a few minutes of tapping, She slides it back over to Jade’s side. “She’s coming.”

“Whatever.” Jade starts playing the movie and it takes Tori a while to realize they were watching a horror movie. Jade’s favorite horror movie.

She audibly gulps, causing a smirk to appear in the other girl’s face.

X

Trina sneaks her way into the school, tiptoeing so no one would hear her. She’s carrying popcorn that she may or may not have sneaked a few in her mouth. She slowly makes her way to the library when she hears a locker door fall behind her.

She makes a face and tiptoes just slightly faster. A heavy exhale comes from one of the doors, and she nearly trips. 

“Oh, god, what is this?” On her way, stranger things start happening, lights flickering, lockers creaking open, and the one that made her jump against a wall dropping the popcorn on the floor, a head rolling off one of the lockers. She breathes rapidly, tentatively stepping forward to inspect the head. She breathes a huge sigh of relief when she realizes it’s just a mannequin head. “Whoever’s out there, this isn’t funny!”

She bends down to pick up the popcorn bag when a rat runs over her foot— her sandalled foot. She shrieks. “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.” She huffs, placing a hand on her chest, waiting for her heartbeat to get steadier.

She continues walking and manages to get halfway through when a decaying hand clasps around her shoulders. She shrieks and drops the popcorn bag, pushing the unknown attacker back. “Oh, screw you and your popcorn, Tori!”

X

**Trina Vega:**

if this is some sort of sick joke, it’s not funny!!! I’m going home!

**Mood = Spooked 😱**

X

Watching macabre movies was not Tori’s favorite thing in the world. Yet she couldn’t help but focus on the movie. Somehow, someway, their chairs were scooched up close to each other. Tori pretends not to notice that her chair had stayed in the same spot and that Jade’s hasn’t.

Tori cringed at the sound of the scissors tearing into flesh and being pulled out combined with the shrieking. Tori sneaked a glance at the gore-loving girl in front of her. She was smiling!

She shook her head and turned back to the screen, seeing that Tawny was now slowly and painfully plucking out the pretty girl’s eyeballs. She squeaks, burying her head into Jade’s shoulders. She also pretends not to notice how Jade doesn’t push her away or yell at her.

The sounds— that Tori noted sounded suspiciously like raw steak getting aggressively slapped and then rubbed all over— stopped. “It’s done, Tori.” She looked up. It wasn’t done.

“Jade!” She goes back to her original position, except this time she’s halfway on Jade’s lap. 

The other girl laughs. “Oh, buck up, Tori.” She _gently_ pushes Tori’s head away, and way too instantly for her liking, she misses her touch. “She can’t hurt you.”

“Yeah, but others can.” She whines. “The exact same way, too.”

“Like who?”

“Like you.” The corner of her lip shapes to form that devilish smirk that normally would have sent chills down her spine, but this time she can’t help but grin. “You don’t scare me.”

“Really?” Jade wants to continue the banter, but realizes _exactly_ what’s happening and backs down. “Watch the movie, Vega.”

She pretends not to care when that easy grin on Tori’s face is replaced with disappointment. She pretends not to notice the floating feeling in her stomach, not quite butterflies. She pretends not to notice how easy it is to talk to her. She pretends not to notice just how easy it would be for Tori to take down her walls, but instead, she doesn’t force it. She pretends not to notice the rapid spreading of that _feeling._

And if that means pretending not to notice Tori Vega, she’s fine with that.

X

Trina tried to catch her breath, hands on her knees. “Jesus—” _huff_ “—Christ—” _gasp_ “—Almighty.” She lets out one final sigh of relief. She scans her surroundings for the first time since she walked through the door, there are multiple beakers, flasks, and test tubes knocked over on lab tables. 

“What the hell happened here?” She’s careful not to touch anything. Too much weird chiz was happening for her to even try it. “Hello?”

“Hello!” An unknown voice you would probably hear from a muppet echoes through a... lab oven? She’s too busy screaming and running away to notice. She falls down the stairs, rolling like clothes in a washing machine. 

She whines as she picks herself up, but instantly drops down again. She whines even louder when she notices that her left heel has nearly snapped off. “Those were my favorite heels...” She yells into the empty staircase. “You hear that, asshole? My favorite heels!”

She gets a loud roar in response, and just like that, she’s off fast. Well, at least as fast as you can get with broken heels. A trail of ‘ow’s follow her as she rounds the corner.

X

**Trina Vega:**

you ruined my ugg heels! I hope your happy with yourself!!!

**Mood = Mournful 😫**

X

The movie had ended, relief instantly flooding through Tori when the credits started rolling. That movie was traumatizing and no amount of Jade threats will ever come close to whatever _that_ was. She buries her head into her arms and lays it on the table. _Beat._ “Aaaagggghhhhh...” Jade opens her mouth to speak. “Ugh!”

Jade waits for her to continue. “You done?”

“Yeah...” It comes out as a whine, and Jade almost feels bad. _Almost._

She puts away the PearBook and pulls out a box of playing cards, iconic horror movie characters printed on each card. She starts to steadily place them down, Tori realizes she’s trying to build a house of cards.

Before Tori could speak, Jade does, “Do whatever the hell you want, just don’t ruin it for me.” Tori was persistent, but she knows when to back off. 

After a few minutes of silence and Tori trying her hardest not to get bored, she decides it was enough. “Hey, can I talk to you while you do that?”

Jade pauses. “Sure, whatever.”

“Okay, uh...” She didn’t really think she was gonna get this far, but here she is and she has no idea what to say.

Jade nearly sighs but stops herself from blowing down the cards. “You gonna say something, or what?”

“Uh, did we have any homework for Sikowitz?”

“Tori...” Jade isn’t facing her, but Tori knows she’s rolling her eyes.

“Okay, okay, um...” She thinks for a second. “Oh!”

Jade raises an eyebrow. Tori seemed to come up with something, but instead of saying it she’s just sitting there bouncing on her seat and grinning like an idiot. “Well?”

“Oh, yeah, question,” Jade rolls her eyes, _Idiot_ , “umm, so what’s your best scar story?”

“That’s it?” Jade asked incredulously. “That’s what you were excited about?”

“Well, yeah,” Tori responds. 

She thinks about it for a second. “There was this one time when I was eight, my mom wanted me to be the flower girl for a wedding, so I made Cat scratch me,” Tori nods, following along, “you know, really dig in there, and now I just have three scars on my thigh. I used to tell people that I got it from Wolverine.”

“Um...”

“Yeah, my mom wasn’t impressed.” She pauses. “Cat failed so I gave her a new haircut,” she says, pride in her voice concerning Tori.

“Right...” Tori pulls out something to read.

“Star Wars?” Tori’s head snaps towards her. “Seriously?”

“Um, yeah...” Tori bit her lip.

“What’s so good about that shit, anyway?”

“Well, on the basic level it’s really cool and it goes all ‘psshew, kssshh, nnnnn, woom, woom, woom...’” She stops when she notices Jade on the verge of laughter. “Sorry... my friend, Ian and I used to play with our own, home-made lightsabers.”

Surprisingly, the smile on Jade’s face didn’t have a single trace of mockery on it. “Oh, yeah?”

“Mhm. But it’s not just that, the characters and the story and the whole entire universe, in general, is just so interesting and cool and—” 

“I get it, Tori.” Tori deflates. “So who’s your favorite character?”

She perks up just as fast. “Han frickin’ Solo.” She can’t stop herself from the avalanche of words that’s about to come from her mouth. “He’s such a jerkhole but I love him and he has the best one-liners ever. Me and Ian used to dress up as Han and Leia and I would be Han and he would be Leia, and...”

She stops when Jade clasps a hand over her mouth. “Slow down, Vega.” She goes back to her house of cards. “Detention is punishment enough.”

“Oh.” Jade tries to push down that heavy feeling in her chest. 

A few more minutes of awkward silence passes before she hears Tori take a sudden breath in, she turns to see her nose twitching and immediately reacts. “Vega, turn away!”

It’s too late. A sneeze escapes through her nose. She’s knocked down her half-finished house of cards. An expression that seemed to be a mix of guilt and fear pass over Tori’s face. One thought flashed in her head.

Run.

She knocks back her chair when she jumps out, scaling tables and knocking down a few books. Dickers is the least of her worries right now. 

"Come back here, Tori!" She wasn't any more careful than Tori is, in fact, probably less, knocking down multiple chairs and moves multiple tables out of place. The room looked as if a hurricane had passed over. Said hurricane being Jade West. "Get your ass over here!"

Tori yelps when she gets tackled by Jade. She closes her eyes tight, loosening a bit when she feels a bit of the weight ease off, but it’s still there. She eventually opens it to see that Jade was now straddling her.

“Um, hi?” 

“You’re dead, Vega.” Before she could even react, Jade’s dug her fingers into her side and Tori was just a large writhing lump underneath her. 

“What’s so funny, huh, Vega?” Tori tries to buck her off, but Jade is stronger and keeps her hold, making the tickle torture even worse.

“Jokes—” she screams when Tori hits a particularly sensitive spot, “—on... you, I like getting tickled.”

“Oh, yeah?” She curls in three of her fingers, leaving only her index and middle. “Then you’re just gonna have to be paid a visit... from the tickle bunny twins!” This time, she doesn’t restrict herself with just her stomach, she reaches for her neck, her armpits, reaching down to her feet. All until Tori was a completely breathless mess under her.

Just as quickly as it had happened, Jade was off and back to her chair. “You’re lucky I didn’t cut your hair off.” She takes her scissors and snips them in her direction. “Though now I’m thinking maybe I should.”

Tori shook her head, trying to catch her breath. She slowly picked herself up from the floor and sat down after placing her chair back upright. She’s careful to gather her hair to the side out of Jade’s reach. She stared at Jade, who was now cutting up a page from a random book that probably fell when they were chasing each other.

X

**Trina Vega:**

I knew I should have listened to those dumb sewer stories Sinjin talks about. THERES A ZOMBIE IN HERE!!!

**Mood = Dead 😵**

X

Trina had decided to pull her phone out to record all the strange happenings. If she was going to get the chiz scared out of her, she might as well get hella famous for it. “Alright, so, a lot of strange chiz has been happening,” a loud bang could be heard from the library, “yeah, like that, and um, I think... there’s a zombie here with me.”

She turns the camera in her direction. “Isn’t that crazy?” She pauses. “Oh no, and my lipstick’s smudged. Ah, I gotta fix that.” She opens the door to the nearest restroom... and it’s not as spooky as the rest of the school. Granted everything in school was completely normal except for all those strange noises, if it weren’t for her camera, she’d look insane. 

But when she reapplies her makeup, the lights start flickering and a stall creaks open right behind her. She jumps, drawing a direct line from her top lip to her septum. “Goddamnit.” She sighs, but before she could wipe it off, a figure appears behind her. A disgusting, decaying, bald figure. 

She shrieks and runs off. As fast as she can, still with a broken heel. She quickly pulls her phone up. “Did you guys see that?” She whines. “Oh, who’s gonna post this video when I die?”

She freezes when creepy organ music starts playing quietly. She starts to shake when the music starts playing even louder. “Oh god, oh god, oh god.” Matching the notes playing in crescendo, a bunch of crawling hands starts creeping towards her. She shrieks and kicks and stomps at them. “Get. Away. From. Me!” 

She breaks into a run. When she rounds the corner, the zombie is right there, staring at her. She guns for the staircase, but falls down, gracefully enough for Trina Vega. Her phone slides across the fall and just as she reaches for it, the zombie’s head rolls near her side and she runs again, phone completely forgotten.

She runs and runs for what seems like forever. The hallways get darker and darker as she runs through them. She doesn’t bother stopping to hide, she knows that whatever _it_ is will get her, one way or another. And unfortunately for others, Trina Vega would very much like to continue her career in Hollywood Arts.

She rounds the corner and breathes out an overdramatic sigh of relief when she sees the front doors of the school. But the zombie jumps at her, opening its mouth with no noise coming out. Trina shrieks and punches it in the face.

“Ow!” 

Trina burst through the doors. Straight into bright, California sun. She bends down with hands on her knees, catching her breath. 

“You- you are not Tori...” She hears Andre’s voice to her right.

“What?” She exhales. The zombie comes running out, clutching... his nose? “What the hell is going on here?”

“We were supposed to be doing Tori’s Hollywood Arts initiation.” Andre gestures towards the zombie, who takes off... his bald cap? An explosion of curly hair follows, and Trina immediately recognizes him as Rodrick... or whatever. 

“And you’re not Tori.” Robbie adds, “And you punched me!”

Once it settled in, a look of pure anger and offense appears on her face. Soon she’s raining her fists down on Robbie, who is desperately begging Andre to help him. “Andre! Andre, help, she’s hitting my bacne! Ow. Ow. Ow.”

“Woah, hey, Trina, calm down.” Andre tries to pull her off, but a woman scorned... “Trina!”

X

**Trina Vega:**

as if my first iniation wasn’t bad enough, I had to go through that again!!! Thanks, Rodrick!

**Mood = Wazzed 🤬**

X

“Wonder what’s taking Trina so long?” Tori asked.

“Maybe she fell into a hole and got crushed by wet cement,” Jade answers.

Tori rolls her eyes at that. She’s grown accustomed to Jade’s comments. Especially ones that involve someone getting hurt. 

Tori suddenly remembers something. “Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask you this since Friday.”

Jade raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“How did you get that makeup on you when I ‘hit’ you during our scene?” she asks, putting air quotes around the word ‘hit.’

Jade turns her entire body, leaning in close so their faces were only inches apart. “A magician never reveals her secrets.”

Tori raises her hands. “Alright.” Tori checks the clock at the front of the room. “Dickers has been gone for a while dontcha think?”

“Well, detention’s almost over so I don’t really care where he is.”

“You think we should try to find him?”

Jade scoffs, “Tt, go ahead.” She waves a dismissive hand. “If you get caught, it’s not my problem.”

“Nevermind.” She sighs. And then they’re back to silence. For probably the fifth time they’ve been in here.

“Hey, Tori, look.” Tori turns to see that she’s made a lightsaber out of markers. “Wooooom.” As soon as she swings it, it immediately falls apart. “Aww.”

Tori giggles. Jade gives her a curious look when she starts rummaging through her bag and pulls out a black remote thingy and a plastic rod. Jade stops her jaw from dropping in amazement when she puts them together, presses a button, and it immediately lights up into a bright orange.

“Isn’t that shit, like, way expensive?” Tori glares at her for the use of her language, which Jade ignores.

“Yeah, Ian got it for me on my fourteenth birthday.” Jade nods her head. No, she is not taking mental notes. “See, it’s even modded to have sound effects.” She skillfully spins the saber around. Jade unable to do anything but stare at the blade as it dances around Tori’s fingers. Plus it has sound effects. 

“Huh.”

Tori bounces up and down, lightsaber making noise as she moves. “Isn’t it so cool?”

“Yeah.” Jade squints. “Do you just carry that around with you all the time?”

She hugs the saber tight as if she was trying to suffocate a newborn child. “Yeah, it’s my baby...” She winces. “Though I would definitely be dismembered right about now...”

“You are such a nerd...” Jade laughs, but there isn’t a single bit of nastiness in her comment.

“And you know that little happy dance that I do?” She switches it off and lays it on the table.

“Yeah, please don’t—” Tori starts swinging her arms around. “You’re doing it.”

“It’s the Han Solo dance from the galactic dance-off game.” Jade sighs, trying her best not to laugh. “I know all the moves. This is the trash compactor.” To Jade, it just looked like she was dabbing. 

She stands up and slowly brings her arms down. “Stop it, Vega.” Tori pouts. “That’s enough.”

“Aww, but I wanted to do the whole thing.” The wide smile that appeared on her face made Jade worry.

“Don’t say it.”

“I could teach you all the moves.” 

“Nooooo,” she whines. “Fuck you, Vega. I’m not doing it. You do your little nerd thing with Robbie.”

Tori smiles. “Robbie already knew the dance.”

“Of fucking course he did.” Tori giggles at the train of swear words that comes from Jade’s mouth soon after.

“You owe me, I’m only here because of you.” 

Jade laughs overdramatically. “No!”

“Come on, fun for the family.”

“No.”

“Jade...”

“No.”

“Please?”

“No!”

“Come on...”

“Fuck off.”

Tori gives her a reprimanding look. “That’s not very nice, Jade.”

“You’re not my mom.”

“Do you listen to your mom?”

They stare each other down. To Tori’s surprise, Jade backs down first. “What do I get if I let you teach me?”

Tori thinks. “Sweet new dance moves?”

“I’m not—”

Jade gets saved by the door swinging open. Dickers walks in, looking completely frustrated. That frustration turns into pure rage when he sees the mess the two girls have made. 

“What the hell happened here?” 

“A hurricane came by,” Jade says sarcastically. “Where were you?”

He sighs. “Filling our paperwork for Cat and that wall!” He picks up a book from the floor and slams it on the table. “Now I thought I said you would sit still here and wait.”

“No, you didn’t, all you said was stay here.” Tori not so subtly mouths for Jade to stop talking. “We didn’t leave.” 

He snarls at her. “That’s it.” Tori squeaks, but the corner of Jade’s mouth only quirks up. “You girls are spending the next week... in detention.”

“Two hours have passed.” He checks his watch, and without a word, points at the door, holding out the box for them to take their phones.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Jade bursts out laughing, and eventually, Tori joins in too. They laugh all the way outside... where they see Trina choking out a zombified Robbie while Andre, Cat, and Beck try to pull her off.

“Jade!” Beck exclaims. His eyes are pleading her for help, but she pulls out her phone to record the whole thing.

“Trina!” Tori joins in on trying to peel her off of the poor boy. “Trina, let go.”

Eventually, they all manage to peel her off, but not without leaving scratch marks on all of them except Jade, who had already posted the video. “These jerks tried to put me through hell again!” Now that she was off, Tori can actually get a good look at her, her hair was sticking up in all sorts of places, her makeup was completely messed up, her clothes were wrinkled and dirty, and her heel has almost snapped off.

Tori raised a questioning eyebrow.

“Jade,” Beck sighed, exasperated, “you were supposed to bring Tori out.”

Jade mutters a curse under her breath. “I forgot...”

“How could you forget?” Robbie’s voice cracks. “Look what happened!”

Jade glares at him and he whimpers. “Next time, alright?”

“Wait,” Tori starts, “can anyone tell me what’s going on?”

Andre sighs. “You’ll see. Soon.”

Tori’s jaw drops. “What does that even mean?” She turns to everyone else for an explanation. “Cat?”

“I’m sorry, Tori...”

“Sorry for what?” Trina doesn’t stick around after that, she angrily stomps away. “There goes my ride...”

She turns to Jade, but she’s already walking away with Beck.

“I’ll drive you, Tori,” Andre offers.

She smiles at him. “Thanks, Andre.”

“Can I come?” Cat asks excitedly.

“Yeah, you can come too.” 

She jumps up and down. “Yay!” She wraps her arm around Tori’s neck, who only smiles awkwardly. Andre shrugs when she sends him a questioning look.

“Well, Inside-Out Burger?”

“Inside-Out Burger!”

“Wait, sorry for what?”

“Nothing!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not gonna lie, I was actually thinking of cutting this entire chapter entirely and saving it for later, but as you can see, I kept it. Still not sure if that was the right choice... Also, I have no clue where the 'Tori likes Star Wars' bit came from. I don't even like Star Wars???


End file.
